Darkness
by katamari3524
Summary: One year after the end of the series, Team Avatar decided to celebrate the peace. Before too long, a storm and intruders make trouble. Reviews would be appreciated.
1. Darkness

Darkness

"_Darkness is not evil, child. It is merely a liar. It hides truths. Those who cling to the light have demonized it, but it is not evil. You, child, as a Darknessbender, are not evil. You are doing great work, for tonight marks the first step in creating the new world. It is through darkness that great things can be done, can the great be brought down. Use your training child, use the shadows and begin the great change. Do not be afraid, do not listen to their lies, and do not forget that I am always with you."_

"_Yes master."_

For a moment, Aang stood frozen petrified even. It was not due to the storm. The lightning and thunder seemed far away. Even as they wreaked havoc in the skies above the capital, being inside the massive Fire Nation palace made them seem as if they were in a different world. Even the actions that had played out before him: the child silently screaming out in pain as her life was cut short, it seemed to be in a different world. Even as her she fell, limp and lifeless, it seemed that the two were separated by an impassable space, so that as her body crumpled like a broken doll as it hit the ground, Aang felt as if she had merely been a bad dream, a figment of an exhausted mind on a sleepless night.

Everything seemed to be away from him, as if he were separated from the entire world by an invisible wall, everything but two exceptions.

Beyond the dead body, two eyes stared at Aang. They seemed to pierce through walls, stabbing into his head and heart, blood red irises that glowed onwards in the usual blue shades of night, blood red eyes that seemed to make Aang uneasy as they looked toward him, two red eyes staring out in a dark room.

Lightning flashed, seeming to make the entire world a blinding white. He could hear noises, footsteps and voices down the hallways behind him, the other guests and hosts of the entire party, silenced by the rumbling of thunder, rattling through the entire palace, rattling through every iota of Aang's body, preparing him for a very different sound.

_"Don't worry Avatar. I'm not here to harm you. It would be better if you were completely comfortable. The child who brought peace being harmed by the experiment of war would be unfortunate at best for my efforts. That being said, I have something to discuss with you."_

The voice was high pitched: a females whisper and a female's scream, both seeming to enter Aang's ears at the same time. At least, it seemed to be a woman's, almost sounding like a mother trying to calm a startled child. But, even if he could look past the blood that had just been spilled at the woman's hands, even if he could accept that the child was beyond redemption and needed to be slain, something else refused to let her calm the Avatar's nerves.

"What do you want to discuss?" Aang asked.

_"Avatar, speaking about something so important upon freshly spilled blood, upon where you partied is not acceptable. We will have our discussion later on."_

"And, what happens if I'm busy?" Aang asked.

_ "You will not be busy."_

"Or else you'll send another assassin, won't you?"

_ "My pupil was not sent to murder anyone, merely to pass on a message."_

"What message? She murdered Katara!"

The rain slowed as Aang yelled in frustration at his love taken from his very grasp.

_ "The Waterbender is still alive. 'You' really do have amazing luck and timing, saving Katara right at the last minute, giving her breath again just when her death was all but certain."_

"What was the message then?"

Aang looked back. He had not asked the question, rendered silent in his surprise of the woman's words. It had been Zuko's voice that had asked his question from before. But, the Fire Lord was not alone. Mai, Suki, Toph, Sokka, and Katara were standing behind him.

_"Good question,"_ the woman responded. She was smiling, grinning as spoke. _"But, I doubt you really have any desire to know. You just want to know who this woman is, how she managed to sneak past your security. Am I right?"_  
>"Who are you!" Zuko yelled back, anger clear on his face.<p>

_"I'll take that as a yes,"_ the woman said as she took a step forward. _"My name is, well, just know me as Experiment 19. How I'm here is simple, your guards are terrible."_

"You're an intruder," Zuko said.

_"Yes, although what exactly are you going to do about it? Your guards cannot and will not be able to stop me. And, believe it or not, I'm responsible for keeping about half of you all alive after my pupils actions."_

"You trained that little kid!" Toph yelled out.

_"I did. She really was quite the prodigy."_

"She almost killed me!" Katara yelled out.

_"Yes, she did,"_ the woman said flatly, _"I am quite aware of her actions. It was actually almost amazing. A little girl who can manipulate sounds and make illusions in low light conditions was apparently able to do what entire armies and comet enhanced Firebenders were unable to. Especially you Waterbender, able to be beaten in such a pathetic way. Or is the worst you Fire Lord? You were well aware of the situation but didn't stop it."_

Zuko looked toward Katara, both angered at the woman's words, both walking forward, past Aang, toward the woman.

"What exactly will I do about you being an intruder?" Zuko began asking to himself as he walked past Aang, "I'm going to arrest you."

_"No you won't."_ the woman said as she casually grasped a chopstick from a table to her left, flipping it in he hand, _"Your laws don't apply to me."_

"They apply to everyone!" Zuko said as he took another step toward the woman.

_"No, they don't,"_ the woman began, grasping the chopstick in her hand, _"Your laws don't apply to gods."_

A quick turn was all that Zuko saw before watching the chopstick flying toward his face.

He weaved around it, his eyes becoming focused on the piece of wood flying past him, not noticing the woman moving toward him, not noticing the swirl of her arm, the water being pulled from the pitcher, the water slamming into him, freezing as it touched him.

Slices of water came from the woman's left, quick whips of water swinging toward the red eyes but seeming to miss each time.

The ice was cracking, an angered Firebender melting ice that touched him, water dripping down to the floor.

Another whip of water struck too high, missing the mark slightly as the ice cracked again, louder that it had before, the Fire Lord moving slightly, stepping forward and punching, water hissing as a flame shot forth, hurtling toward the woman, toward a surprised face, and then through her, her body fading into the darkness.

"What the?" Zuko blurted out.

"She's just like that kid, her apprentice," Katara said to him, glancing around. "A Darknessbender. She can turn invisible, manipulate sounds. Where is she! Toph! Can you see her!"

"Zuko! Look out!" the blind Earthbender yelled, powerless to do anything before the woman's fingers poked at the Fire Lord's neck, his body twitching and convulsing before falling to the ground, limp and powerless.

Katara turned, water surrounding her arms, ready to strike the woman down, running to take down the real red eyed woman and not another illusion, ready but powerless to move.

Her body had frozen, immovable and powerless mid-step, but without losing balance, as if the entire world had frozen, all except her frantic breath and the slow steps of the woman.

Her foot stepped down in front of Katara, the red eyes looking upon the powerless Waterbender, each breath slowing more and more as the water began trickling away from her arms, dripping down to the floor.

Katara's body was lowering, feeling itself pulled to the ground, limp legs falling into the puddles of water that she had attempted to strike with, falling further until she was kneeling, her arms dropping weakly to her sides.

"What is this!" Katara began asking, "I, I can't move. What are you doing? I can't even move my arms or legs. Are... are you a Bloodbender!"

Slowly the woman looked down, stepping away slightly.

_"Bloodbending you ask. Pulling at the very liquids that goes through ones veins and arteries, pulling their body to your whims. Do you honestly feel like that is going on? Well, it is not. Bloodbending is nothing more than a dead end in Bending. What you are feeling is your bones, your tendons, ligaments, veins, arteries, capillaries, organs, muscles, skin, hair, and nerves in every part of your body being bent before my will. What you are feeling is the future of your Bending."_

Slowly the woman began walking toward her, a slight smile coming over her face.

_ "I can give you this power," _she began saying,_ "A single touch, all that I need. A single touch, and you will become the future, become"_

"ENOUGH!"

The woman turned toward the sound of the voice, Aang attempting to show dominance over the room, surrounded by his friends, all prepared within a second to strike at the woman. She kept her smile.

"What did you do to Zuko!" Sokka yelled at her, demanding an answer.

_"Remarkably little for a god's hands. You can ask the blind Earthbender; he is still very much alive, even conscious."_ Sokka turned toward Toph, a slight glance of an eye telling an entire conversation. _"You should be thankful that I am a merciful god."_

"Enough with the god claims!" Suki began yelling. "You're not a god! You're just a Waterbender who knows how to hide her tricks extremely well."

_"A Waterbender,"_ the woman repeated. _"How do you think I defeated Zuko? Lightning, a shock that went through his body: that was how I defeated him. Now tell me, how does a Waterbender do that? They cannot. What I used was Lightningbending, a variation of Firebending."_

"You're lying!" Suki yelled.

_"Water."_ The water from the floor swirled around the woman toward the ceiling. _"Earth."_ Stone tiles from the floor rose, hanging in the air. _"Fire."_ All around the woman, flames burst out, fading away in seconds. _"Air."_ A gust ripped through the palace, ripping at Suki's face and seeming to pull her backwards as the water and tiles fell to the ground, the last flames burning away in the gust. _"All is within the realms of control for a god."_

"What in the world are you?" Aang began asking.

_"I never did tell you the message did I?"_ the woman began saying, ignoring Aang's question as she looked up slightly,"_ Right, little boys and girls need their rest so I'll keep it short. The message went something like this: 'you and you alone are to meet me in a place called Scorched Earth Colony Four in, lets say, no longer than two weeks.' Look on a map. You'll find the location there. There we will have our discussion, and your questions will be answered. Do not keep me waiting."_

The woman turned slowly walking away from the group, and further and further from Katara. The Waterbender fell forward, nearly crying as she laid on the ground, seeming to have come a single touch from some twisted form of bending. She turned to watch as the woman began walking into the darkness of the hallway, stopping to say one thing before disappearing into darkness of the night.

_"Oh, and sorry for ruining your party. I heard it was beautiful."_


	2. Nightfall

Nightfall

"It was a beautiful party."

Aang had heard that early that evening, before the nightmares, before he was even tired.

"Yeah, except for, well, you know, the punch bowl incident. And the rain," he responded to Katara in his room that night.

"Yeah. A storm after all its been cloudless all day. Any storm would have surprised me, but this one... " Katara began saying.

"Zuko putting us up in such these rooms. It sure was nice." He stopped for a moment. "We're going to have to repay his kindness somehow. When's his birthday anyway?"

"Umm..." Katara said laying back on the couch, "What would you plan on getting him anyway? He's the Fire Lord; what could we get him that he probably doesn't have?"

"Well..."

"I know! An exotic fruit basket." Katara stopped and looked toward Aang. "I'll keep thinking."

"Speaking of fruit, did you try those fruit tarts? I heard Mai fired five chefs because they messed up the recipe."

"Hey I know! We just have to make Mai happy." Katara fell back on the couch anew. "I'll keep thinking."

"On top of that, she changed the guard shifts, had Zuko inspect all their armors, personally chose the caterers, supposedly all the way from Ba Sing Se. They seemed familiar."

"Iroh should visit him. No. No... He already did. I'll keep thinking."

"I think that the only thing that she didn't choose was the band."

"Dance lessons!" Katara stated. "No..."

"But then again, I doubt Zuko had the time to organize anything else. He's always so busy."

"A day off!"

"A day off?"

"Yeah, for Zuko and Mai," Katara began saying. And as she began speaking, an eerie feeling came over him. "I don't think I ever hear of Zuko even taking a sick day." Aang felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up on end. And, he knew exactly why. "He _needs _a vacation. You know, just sitting around at the beach rather than meeting with one person after another."

Aang spun around.

"What's wrong?" Katara asked.

For a moment, Aang walked toward the door, looking around, searching for something. Yet, only the darkness of night existed.

"Nothing. Nothing. I just felt like somebody was watching me."

"Probably just the architecture. It gives me the creeps. So what do you think? Zuko. Vacation. Beach."

"That... That's a good idea," Aang responded, turning away from the door.

"I know! Zuko looked tired. He's probably sleeping right now."

Sokka could hear the water running, yet he remained still, sitting upon the bed, dreading when she would come out. He could hear Suki's humming, could hear the tune, could hear how lighthearted it was. It didn't fit. She was furious at him. He had made a big mistake, one that he couldn't try to argue about. He knew Suki was about to yell at him as soon as the door opened. And, he couldn't do a thing about it.

Thunder rattled through the palace, making the bed shake slightly.

Sokka got up. In an instant his head was poking into the hallway, swiveling back and forth.

He had heard something. Although he swore his brain was making a fool of him, it had sounded too real. Somebody had made a long and slow exhalation, and it sounded like it was right outside his door. He was sure of it. Somebody was in the hall. Somebody was watching him. Was it Toph? He hoped it wasn't. She was the last person he wanted to see.

Yet as he looked down the hallway, all he saw was the usual darkness of night: the hallway, still; the guards, gone for privacy; and the only sounds he could hear were Suki's humming and a slight pattering of rain on the roof and windows. He was alone.

Suki's song changed. She was humming a completely different tune, still lighthearted, still like something he had heard children humming. Sokka began turning slowly turning toward the bed, stepping quietly, so that Suki would never even sense the movement.

He sat down and began waiting anew. Suki's humming went on.

"It was great," Zuko said as the long walk continued.

"Other than the punch bowl," Mai responded, "Can we fire the chef that mixed that?"

"Wasn't that the same chef that made the fruit tarts?" Zuko responded as they reached an intersection of hallways.

"Then can we at least teach certain guests to realize their tolerances?"

"Maybe," Zuko said glancing toward Mai. She had smiled slightly.

"It was a great party. Wasn't it?" Mai said, grabbing Zuko's arm.

Within a second, she had forced him to stop, pulling him toward her, preparing to kiss.

"What the?" Zuko blurted out.

By the time Mai had realized what had happened, Zuko had pulled himself away from her, turning his entire body to look down the hallway to the right.

Mai looked toward him. His entire face seemed to reek of confusion, yet there was an utter seriousness about him.

"My breath doesn't smell that bad, does it?"

"No," Zuko responded. His voice reeked of seriousness. "Something moved."

"It's an empty hallway."

"Exactly. Nothing should. But, I swear that shadow by the curtain moved."

"It's the curtain."

"What."

"See, there it goes again, the curtain moving with it."

Zuko blinked, staring at the the shadow's dance as the curtain swayed.

"I must be tired," Zuko responded. Mai had chuckled slightly as he spoke.

"Come on. Let's lie down before you think other things are moving."

Arm in arm, Mai and Zuko continued walking straight down the hallway, a slow careful pace, Mai clearly concerned about the sudden betrayal of her boyfriend's eyes.

The two left the intersection behind, forgotten as a mere passing scare. Yet, behind them, near the still curtain that Mai had seen moving mere moments before, the shadow began changing, changing into a human shape, and moving on its own.

_"In Darknessbending, child, the fundamental idea is absence. You do not strike. You do not move. You do not breathe. Because you do not exist. Others do. A Darknessbender uses them. Use their image. Their likeness. But before you do, know them. Watch them. Absorb them. And, become them. Sight, sound: they are yours to manipulate, to create lies to fool others. But, be warned, lies are easily dispelled by truth. And, so Darknessbending is easily defeated, for illusions are infinitely weaker when recognized."_

_ "Perhaps in that case, one merely needs to create a new illusion, master."_

It was darker where the shadow went, dark and quiet, but not silent. There was sound: the sound of a girl crying: the cry of the mistake of a few wrong words said under an influence that had grown to be regretted very quickly. Her head was clearing up by that point, clear enough to realize that he wasn't thinking too clearly at the time either.

Her toes touched the ground. She was about to get up; she couldn't keep crying. There was nothing to do but apologize. Yet, as she touched the ground, her tear filled eyes opened wide in surprise.

"Wh... who's there?"

"_My child, be aware of the Avatar's friend, the Earthbender. Those who were born in an abyss of light, they see differently from the rest of the world. She sees through all lies. She sees through darkness. Deceiving her would be fruitless."_

_ "Me. Well, I'm nobody."_

Toph turned. The person who had entered the room was still, seemingly waiting for permission to do anything. But, the person was smiling.

"Are you lost?"

_"Have you been crying?"_

"What? No." Toph began saying, to the person walking to her. "No. I..."

_"You have been. Do you want to talk about it?" _The person said. The figure was still walking closer and closer to Toph, with a sort of walk that seemed oddly familiar to Toph, a walk like Aang's.

"No," Toph said after a deep breath. Sorry, but you're not the person I need to talk to." The person had sat down next to Toph on the bed.

"Where are your parents?"

_"Oh. They... they're dead. Died during the war, fighting the Fire Nation." _Toph put her arm around the child, sensing the sadness and anger of an honest heart. _"It's okay though. I've got a really great master. She treats me better than they ever did. And she knows, like, everything."_

"Who is she?"

_"She's nobody. Just like me. She says it's better that way. I guess she's right. It would have been difficult for me to sneak in here if anyone knew she was in the capital. Her plan would have failed before we even managed to get here." _

It was an intruder. Beneath the innocent grin, beneath the sleight of hand tricks in talking of losing her parents in the war, the person who sat next to her was an intruder. And, for breaking in during an evening when the Avatar, the Fire Lord, and the leaders and elites of nearly every society were present and further guarded by some of the tightest security seen, it was perhaps the most fearless intruder in the world.

"You need to leave!" Toph had said. She could sense the heartbeat of her intruder, a normal rhythmic sound, seemingly trying to calm her slightly fearful temperament.

Ba-bump.

The intruder got up, slowly silently. It was odd for an intruder. Toph was nearly sure she would leave quickly, or fight. But, instead there was a mere saunter toward the door, all the while, her head turning, looking around the dark room.

Ba bump.

Toph could hear her breath. It was odd, heavier, not like crying, like she was trying to take longer breaths than normal.

Ba-bump.

As she walked away, Toph felt something about the air. It felt odd around her, sort of like it was about to storm. Only, it was storming, and it had been for nearly an hour.

Ba-bump.

The intruder was making odd gestures with her hands, odd swirling effects with her fingertips, but it was of no surprise. Toph had first noticed the intruder because of the way her hands were moving. Otherwise, she would have mistaken such a still and silent intruder for a piece of furniture.

Ba-bump.

The intruder kept walking, her hands still swirling, still having the innocent grin on.

Ba-_Bump._

Toph never had time to react. She didn't even fully realize what had happened until after it was all over.A single malicious grin: that was the last thing Toph recognized. After that, she could barely even piece together how she got to the ground.

That grin continued as the intruder left the room: a little girl, younger than Toph, younger than Aang, grinning, and practically skipping out of a room that she had left another to die in.

Toph couldn't even move. Her entire body was coated in ice. She couldn't breathe. Her lungs were filled with water. She was crying: helpless, powerless, and alone, so close that she could practically hear her friends voices. Yet she couldn't get to them. All she do could as she felt her chest ache, as she lay mouth agape like a fish on land, was wonder.

Who was the intruder, and where had she learned Waterbending like that?


	3. Clouded Stars

Clouded Stars.

"Listen to what you're saying. This is your own sister and Aang!" Zuko said.

"Then who else could it be? It had to be a Waterbender. And the only two are... Unless... Unless it was set up to look like a Waterbender did it. It would explain why Toph got attacked. Somebody wanted to set Aang or Katara up. I bet whoever it was wasn't even at the party. They just snuck in later."

"Sokka, What are you thinking?" Zuko asked standing up. "That would mean that whoever did it got past two posted guards at any door and at least half a dozen other roaming guards to get to any of our rooms."

"I don't like the idea of it either. But, it has to be some intruder. And, somehow they snuck past every single guard, because none of us wanted to kill her. Suki may be mad at her, but, not enough to kill her."

Zuko took a deep breath. There was silence in his room as he exhaled. It seemed the most silent it had been since he and Mai had stepped in there not so long ago. Now, Mai had left, gone to keep an eye on Toph, and through the darkness of the night, a nightmare had revealed itself to him.

"Whatever happened to Toph," Zuko said, "We have to make sure it doesn't happen again."

"I know. Of all of us, Toph was the only one to get her own room. Maybe they went after her because she was vulnerable that way?"

"We should stay in buddy pair for the rest of the night," Zuko said, "Whoever did it, they wanted to take Toph out quietly. With two on one, they'll think twice."

"And what about Toph's attacker? They'll just try again. Who's to say that you won't turn your head and Mai disappears! We need to figure out how to catch them!"

"Sokka. We'll catch them, whoever they are. They'll slip up."

Zuko watched as Sokka rubbed his eyes, scowling in frustration. It was odd. Something seemed off. To Zuko, Sokka seemed a bit paler than usual, like he was sick, and his eyes seemed a bit darker. It had to have been the lack of sleep.

"Come on," Zuko said. "Let's go warn everyone."

_ "Master, why do you teach me these useless Waterbending and Airbending techniques? I thought I was a Darknessbender, not some frozen moon-worshiper or a dead vegetarian."_

"Aang, Katara. Toph was attacked," Zuko stated, slipping into their room.

_"My child, it is because you are, in essence, a Waterbender and an Airbender. It is your gift, one rare to this world: dual-bending: impure bending: Darknessbending for you. As you Darknessbend, you manipulate water and air, perhaps not consciously, but you do. Learning such useless techniques as you call them, they help you to better control your illusions. And, they are most useful backups."_

"Katara," Aang stated as Zuko left, "Lets go talk to Toph."

_ "Backups, master?"_

_ "A minor issue with Darknessbending is that it relies so much on absence, that it lacks the presence to strike. If one is particularly clever or sneaky, one could try tricking their foes into fighting one another, but for practical purposes, all your offensive techniques will likely be derived from Waterbending."_

Mai stood up. The room was silent, with even Toph being completely still and voiceless. She understood. After nearly dying, Toph had a right to be quiet. So, as Mai waited in the dark room, bored as usual, all she could do was listen to sounds around her. The pattering of the rain seemed further away, as if the storm was less severe at that point, and Mai could barely hear it.

It was odd. Even though Toph had survived, the silence and lack of lighting in the room made it feel like she had died and Mai was standing in her tomb.

Yet, Mai could hear some speech down the hallway, three voices in all: two talking and seeming to grow closer, and one yelling, screaming. She recognized them.

"So I'm a witch now! Is that it!" Suki's voice screamed out. "Toph called me a witch and you agreed with her!"

"I..."

"No. Don't lie, you did! 'That witch is just being no fun. Come on Sokka, one more!' You smiled when Toph said that! Am I just some witch to you, or am I just some toy that you played with and got bored with!"

"Suki, I..."

"Zuko?"

"Hey, uh, is it a bad time?"

"Zuko?" Suki repeated in surprise, "No. No."

"Good. I... I'm here to tell you two that Toph got attacked."

"What?" Sokka's voice rang out.

"It happened only a few minutes ago. She's fine now but, whoever or whatever attacked her nearly killed her."

"They got away. Didn't they?" Sokka stated.

"For now. That's why I'm here. Aang and I think that whatever attacked her went after her because she was alone. For the time being, I am going to have to have you two stay together."

Suki looked furiously at Sokka. She wasn't angry at Zuko, nor at Toph for getting attacked. She couldn't be. She was only angered at her boyfriend, and the idea of having to stay with him.

"As long as he doesn't touch the punch again," Suki grumbled.

"Please stay together. For everyone's sakes."

Sokka watched as Zuko walked away. To him, there seemed to be something off about the Fire Lord. His skin seemed paler, his eyes darker, his voice, different, like he was coming down with something. But, that feeling quickly faded as he walked away, forgotten as a passing thought.

In truth, there was something off. Something happened, a secret revealed in confidence with the empty hallway as Zuko returned to the darkness that he had come from.

His irises turned a glowing red color.

"It has to be her then," Katara said before Aang and Toph. Mai was gone, having hurried out as soon as the two had arrived. Toph had slightly appeared to be relieved when Mai left.

"Who?"

"Old Lady Hama!" Katara stated. "She broke out of a prison once. She could do it again. She must be using some apprentice to go after us out of spite."

"I doubt it," Toph responded, "If she had an apprentice, she would have called her 'sifu', not 'master'."

"Not to mention that this doesn't seem like her," Aang responded, "She would have taught any student that freaky Bloodbending technique."

"So, we're back where we started?" Katara asked in frustration.

"Sorry, I wish I knew more."

Katara turned toward Toph. Although she hadn't realized it, her voice seemed weak. As much as the blind Earthbender was trying to put on a brave face, and act like it was just another evening, Toph was afraid. Something about the child, it had shaken Toph, scared her in a way that all her adventures had never done before.

"It's okay," Katara began stepping away, but stopped. "Are you going to be okay alone here?"

Toph forced a slight smile, "Yeah. Whoever the kid was, she was sure that I was going to die. As far as she knows, I am dead, and there's no point in attacking a dead girl." Her voice was so quiet, barely above a whisper.

"Alright then," Katara said. She turned toward Aang, the two walking out of the room. Her voice had turned softer, acting like the parent with a child who had a bad dream, trying to calm her.

"Just, if you see Suki any time tonight, could you tell her I'm sorry," Katara heard as she began leaving the room.

She turned back toward the Earthbender. "Goodnight Toph."

"GO! I know you want to go see her! Go ahead, go kiss her goodnight, and tell her that there's nothing to fear, you've left the bitch! She's the one you're worried about!"

"Suki..."

"I saw the way you reacted when Zuko said that Toph was attacked! Go ahead! Go leave me for her! Evidently the two of us mean nothing to you; I'm just a toy that you got bored with! You're more happy with Toph anyway! So go! She's"

"Hey, I can hear you from all the way down the hallway," Mai interrupted.

She was standing in the door as the two turned to look at her, leaning against the door jam in boredom.

"Sorry," Suki responded, anger flowing from her voice, "I'll be sure to yell a bit quieter."

Mai shook her head slightly at Suki's statement, disapproving of her actions.

"Suki, come with me," she said, "We need to talk."

As Mai finished speaking, there was a moment where the entire room seemed to be in conflict: the sort of silent authority behind Mai's voice attempting to subjugate Suki's rebellious anger.

"Fine," Suki said as she began walking toward Mai.

Sokka remained seated on the bed as the two left, depressed, and desperately trying to come up with anything to say that would convince Suki that he was sorry. As much as he had hoped that he could weather the storm of Suki's anger until she calmed down enough to let him speak, to let him apologize, it seemed that his voice was swept away in her hurricane of emotions.

He could still hear the two's footsteps as they walked away, still hear the odd rhythm of the two's feet as it stormed outside.

"Why in the world are we going this way?" Suki asked angered by Mai's chosen direction. It was directly toward Toph's room.

"Toph and I made a deal," Mai responded. "She never touches the punch ever again, and I get you to talk to her."

"And, what makes you think that I'll"

"Blackmail," Mai responded flatly before Suki's frustrated face, "If you don't want to go along, I'll just tell Ty Lee to tell all the rest of your fan-girls what exactly went on in prison all those times Azula was 'torturing' you. Now can we hurry up before whatever attacked Toph realizes that Sokka is alone."

"He can go die for all I care!"

Sokka heard Suki's statement. He turned his head toward the door, knowing that Suki had made sure that he could hear it. The two had been too far away to hear it like any other offhand statement.

Yet, as he turned toward the door, his eyes caught something moving. He nearly jumped. He hadn't expected to see anything. There shouldn't have been anybody. But, he saw somebody in the darkness of the hallway, moving toward the doorway.

"Toph?" he asked in surprise.

"Can I come in?"

Her voice seemed so quiet, so weak to Sokka. He thought he understood. She had been crying.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, almost dying, it's nothing. I... I just... I've been doing some thinking. And, I think we need to talk."

"Yeah." Sokka responded as she walked further into the room. He closed his eyes in a long blink, seeing only the darkness that inhabited the insides of his eyelids.

_"My child, perhaps you have some moral qualms about manipulating others. Do not. You are an actor, your stage: the world, your roles: anyone and everyone. I am your director or producer, I guess. Even harming others should be a mere chore, nothing more nothing less, for you are paying evil unto evil. These people, they deceive the world, smiling the whole way. If you must harm one, you are saving many in the process."_

_ "Master, you didn't have to use the theater metaphor. I love being a Darknessbender: making others believe what I trick them into thinking. And, I know. I can't wait for the chance to slay all that harms us."_

_ "You should at least have a few."_

"Sokka," Suki's voice rang out as she entered the room. Her voice was more calmer, with any anger having been dispelled. "I... Oh. No."

Mai was behind her, watching the same incident with wide open eyes.

In the room was Sokka, laying in a puddle of water, and before him stood a young girl, turned away from the two. She was completely unremarkable, her face: forgettable, her attire: without nation, her hair: simplistic.

She turned toward the two.

An evil smile flashed across the child's lips and, she vanished. It seemed that the two blinked, and the child was no more, gone in the darkness of the night.


	4. Dark Rain

Dark Rain

The hallways were devoid of new sounds. Merely, the pattering of the rain continued in the background. Voices had been heard time to time, echoes of a few loud comments by guests of the party, but their ripples of sound had disappeared quickly. Footsteps appeared and then disappeared, except for two. The silenced footsteps in the darkness: those who had dared to trespass walking about, they were eternal. Yet, they were not true sounds, merely a slight thump if one's ear were to the ground, quieter than the pattering of the rain, quieter than a beating heart.

The hallways were devoid of new sounds, for a while. Yet, through the silence an odd beat could be heard: thumping: footsteps, hurried ones: running. And, hidden beneath the footsteps, heavy breathing.

Mai was running, hurrying to pass on the news. Zuko needed to know, know of the child who had been so brazen that she had dared to show her face. Suki had been willing to send Mai off; any qualms between the couple were gone. The anger she had was gone, replaced by sorrow, fear, and concern.

Suki would be safe. She was abnormally perceptive: shot nerves at seeing how close Sokka had come to dying. Suki was safe. Sokka would be safer. Mai was not so sure of herself though, running through a shadowy hallway with twists, turns, and frankly, too many hiding places.

Mai ran past the same curtain that she had seen moving with Zuko. It was still, completely motionless, and the odd shadow Zuko had seen moving was nowhere to be see. Mai didn't realize that though. Merely, seeing the curtain was a good sign. She was nearly to his room, with only a few turns in the hallways left.

Mai swung around the wall, skidding, freezing in surprise.

Somebody else was there!

"Katara, Katara, wake up!"

Katara heard the words as Aang nudged her shoulder. She didn't want to get up though. The bed was well beyond merely comfortable. It was pulling her back to sleep, pulling her away from Aang's voice away from the seriousness of it.

"Five more minutes, mommy..." Katara responded dreamily. She began rolling over, turning away from Aang, falling back to sleep.

"Aang. Sokka's been attacked," Mai stated. She was staring into the darkness, near who she thought was Aang.

It looked like Aang. His clothes, his body, his face, they looked to be him in the darkness of the hallway. Whoever it was even acted like Aang in the way he held himself and the way he reacted to her voice. His expressions were the same as the boy's.

_"Good."_

It would have been a flawless replication of the Avatar, except for his voice.

By the time Mai had heard the voice, a knife was in her hand, ready to strike. Whoever it was, they had clearly seen the knife, their eyes had looked toward it. Yet, no movement came.

"WHERE'S AANG."

_"You assume that one who wears a mask comes with a knife. Masks can be used to hide demons, or to protect one from evils. You see me a demon, and so you assume I harm your god. No. Your god is safe. Not here. In his chamber. But he is safe, the safest of all here."_

There was something off, something wrong to Mai. Suddenly, she really wasn't feeling well. She needed to lie down, immediately, only she wouldn't and couldn't move. Her legs and arms felt numb, she could feel her heartbeat pounding out of her chest, and she was beginning to feel slightly light headed. But, she couldn't move, she physically couldn't. She couldn't even fall.

_ "You had seen the child, the demon in a mask. I wanted you to see her, wanted you to see your __intruder: unmasked, plain: human. In case this doesn't work, I needed the backup that at least you __know what you're dealing with." _

Mai began feeling dizzy.

_ "You should be able to figure it out from seeing her and talking to Sokka."_

By that point Mai had finally realized the truth. She was blacking out. Her legs were giving out, and the entire world seemed to be spinning. Yet, through her dizziness, she remembered seeing the person's face.

"_Embrace the darkness. It will aid everyone,"_ Mai heard as she fell.

It still looked like Aang, only, his irises were glowing red.

"Katara... Katara..."

The Waterbender heard the voice, felt it pull her back into reality, felt the light shaking.

"Wake up, Katara."

Slowly she turned, laid on her back, staring up, trying to keep her eyes open.

"That was a short five minutes."

She pulled herself up so she was seated.

"Sorry, I need to go talk to Zuko."

Katara looked toward him. His voice sounded so urgent, like he needed to go there immediately, desperately even. Her toes poked out from under the covers, at the edge of the bed, moving toward the floor.

"All right, let me get dressed," she said swaying slightly. She wasn't fully awake, still trying to keep her eyes open.

"No. I'm going to go on my own. It'll be faster. I just need you to to stay awake while I'm gone. And, do not let anyone in here."

Katara exhaled. It wasn't going to be easy. Any fight against sleeping was a losing battle, but alone and at night was even harder.

"Just, don't be gone too long."

"I won't," Aang said as Katara got to her feet and threw on a robe that was in the room.

He began walking, out of the bedroom, past the couch, and out the door. Katara watched him leave, watched him look behind him, like something was there.

He had sensed something, like before. Somebody was watching him, only he swore he heard something, like somebody was muttering something.

There were shadows everywhere. Yet, there was nowhere to hide. He had felt like there was somebody waiting right behind him, watching him. Yet, nobody was there. He was alone in the hallway.

Aang shook his head. He had to have been just jumpy. The storming was doing it. It was messing with him. He was sure of it. He turned around, toward Zuko's room, and began walking.

_"Master, can we, well, can we talk about our bending?"_

_ "Is there something troubling you?"_

_ "Well, it's just that, we're... we're forgetting who we are. All you ever do is tell me about the Avatar's friends. You have me learning regular Bending. You don't even bend all that much anymore, at least, not like you used to. We're becoming more and more like them, like the bad guys who rule everything."_

_ "I understand. I've been holding this from you, but, very, very soon, we will go to the heart of their world, become immersed amongst their pawns. We need to become them, become their happy citizens. We cannot go as Impure Benders: for to them, Impure Benders do not exist."_

_ "But, we'll make them know it exists, right master?"_

_ "Yes my child. Their eyes will open wide to the truth. They shall see it, submerge in it, and rise anew, in our world."_

_ "Yes master."_

_ "All right. You've been training a lot lately, I suppose you deserve what you want. Sit down, relax."_

"Aang?" Zuko's voice rang out. He had been resting in his room, waiting for Mai to finally come back, watching the door, to see his girlfriend finally come in. Only, instead, Aang had come in, and he was carrying something.

_ "Darkness."_

"Mai? Aang, what happened!"

_ "Fle..."_

"I don't know!" Aang said as he laid Mai's unconscious body down on the couch. "She was just lying in the hallway. She didn't even look like she had been attacked. No signs of a struggle. It just looked like she laid down to take a nap."  
>Aang stopped for a second, as if realizing something.<p>

"Maybe, maybe this is the same attacker as Toph's. Only, they weren't trying to kill Mai. They were trying to sneak around, and Mai was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or maybe they were trying to kill her. Somehow they got the jump on her and knocked her out before she had time to react. But, I came along at the right time."

"Aang, Mai's not blind or deaf. She'd see them."

"Unless they were invisible..."

"Aang?"

"I've been thinking about it for a while," Aang began saying. He was walking around Zuko, always to the Fire Lord's left. "It would explain how they managed to sneak by all the guards. It has to be it. It makes sense! If they turned invisible, Toph wouldn't be affected. They must have gone after her because of the threat she posed."

"Aang, how does somebody just turn invisible?"

"Waterbending," Aang responded. "Some kind of incredibly obscure Waterbending, probably. Katara and I made clouds and mists. Maybe this is the same idea."

"We don't have any way to prove that this is"

"A little while before Toph was attacked," Aang interrupted, still to Zuko's left, "I could have sworn that I heard footsteps in the hallway. But, when I looked, nobody was there. I almost thought this place was haunted. But, maybe that was them: our intruder. Come on. You had to have sensed something tonight, something a bit off, a slight sound, something moving in the corner of your eye."

Zuko froze.

"Got to stay awake," Katara said as she got to her feet. She had lost time, a few seconds usually, a long blink, but occasionally it had been minutes at a time.

She was falling asleep, fighting against it the entire way, but her body was winning. Aang needed to hurry up.

She began pacing around the couch, trying to get her blood flowing, trying to ward off the darkness of slumber. It wasn't helping. Her legs were exhausted. She had woken up too early, and partied with too much vigor the day prior. And, she was paying the price: fatigue, pain, and chills.

She kept shaking, like she was coated in ice; almost, almost like she was back home.

"You've done well, Katara."

The Waterbender's eyes opened in surprise. She turned, confused.

"I'm proud. You couldn't have made me happier."

"...Mom?"

"Who knows what the intruder will do next! We need to go on the offensive now. I say get everyone together, put them all in a single room, while we assemble the guards. We get them to search the rooms, search every nook and cranny in one determined sweep until we find the little"

"Aang, you are aware how extreme that is!"

"We have to find them! I didn't want it to come to this either, but necessity rules. And, your guards have already failed. They're just wasting their time now."

Aang paused. He could see the discontent in Zuko's face.

"Do you want what happened to Toph and Mai to happen to anybody else?"

"You should really get back to Katara."

"Fine," Aang stated to the silent Fire Lord. "I get it. When the next person gets attacked, it's on your conscience. You had the chance to stop this now, but you refused to admit that your girlfriend's planning of this party had failed. Katara. Sokka. Suki. When one of them gets attacked: you will have no more say in the matter. Your guards will search the building: even if I have to silence you to do it."

Long slow footsteps seemed to echo throughout the room as Aang finished speaking. He was leaving, with nothing more to say. He had already made Zuko think. But, not about the his plan: about him.

Something was backwards about Aang. Since when was he so aggressive, so vicious, so much like his sister and father had been?

Zuko looked back toward Mai.

"I'm the proudest mother in the world. My children are heroes. You've saved everyone, saved the world," Katara heard. It was her mother saying everything. She couldn't understand how though. Was she dreaming?

"I've been watching you two, every step of your way. I couldn't believe how much your Waterbending skills have improved, or how clever and smart your brother became. It's amazing. You two deserve every single good thing that you will ever receive. You've saved everyone."  
>Katara blinked. She noticed something.<p>

"I love you. Now, don't fret. Rest. Mother will protect you. I will always protect you."

It didn't look or sound anything like her mother.

"Who are you?"  
>"Are you okay dear?" her mother responded, "You should lie down. Mother will"<p>

"You're not my mother!"

Katara's voice echoed through her room. And, as it did, her mother's form began fading, turning to a silhouette, and then disappearing into the darkness of the room, leaving behind a figure: a child, a young girl.

_"I guess it was kind of asking for trouble to try this. Should have followed master's advice. 'Use the Avatar's form if you need to.'"_

Katara began staring at the child. 'Master.' It had to be her.

"You're the one," Katara said, "You're the one who attacked Toph! Aren't you?"

_"You're the one who attacked Toph! Aren't you."_ the child parroted, _"What fantasy land are you in? I killed her. I filled her lungs up with lots of water. She drowned. She deserved to!"_

Katara watched as the child raised her arm into the air, pointing, pointing toward the window behind her.

_ "You all deserve to!"_

The hand fell, only Katara barely noticed it.

CRASH!

The window had shattered, glass shards sparkling in fall as knives of water came flying in, gravitating toward the child's hand, swirling around her, toward her other hand.

Katara staggered back seeing the child's hand pointed toward her.

Knives of water were hurtling toward her!

_"You deserve to!"_


	5. Rising Moon

Rising Moon

_"Nothing. Just nothing. Just a bad dream master."_

Water crashed, stabbing, slicing into the door, and dissipating as it sliced.

Across the room water thrust forth from the window, exploding forth toward the child.

She was still, still as the water rushed toward her, still as the water ripped tapestry and curtain apart in its rush toward her, still because she wasn't real.

"_Not there."_

The words seemed to echo through Katara's head as she watched the image of the child disappear as steam before the flood of water.

"_Not there."_

They echoed through Katara's head as the water moved toward her arms.

"_Not there."_

The words echoed through her head as she began turning her head, searching. The child was speaking to the Waterbender, yet it seemed that her voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

"_Not here."_

Katara's head snapped to the left. The sound had come from a single direction, a single mouth, a single person.

But, the child was to her right.

A simple twitch: that was all that saved Katara, a simple jerking of her entire body to a slightly more defensive stance, the flood of water around her turning to ice, blocking the knives of water coming toward her.

Katara looked to her left, saw the child, whipped water toward the child's grin.

And, she watched the image dissipate once more.

"_You're getting tired. Aren't you."_

Everywhere. The child's words were right. Katara's chest pounded, her lungs burned, like she had run miles in winter, her hands and legs felt frozen. And, more and more, even in the middle of a flight, her eyes were having trouble staying open.

"_You should have let mommy protect you."_

Everywhere. Katara kept looking around, searching for the child. She swallowed, trying to regain control of her breathing. It wasn't working.

_"You wouldn't have felt a thing."_

Behind her. Katara didn't even fully turn her head, before it hit.

It felt like something had bitten into her, right on her shoulder-blade, forcing her forward, upward, off her feet. Katara felt herself flying forward, falling to the ground.

She hit the ground after a mere second, a half breath.

Katara knew what to do. Roll onto her back and throw water at the child. Only she couldn't. Water pounded into her back, seemingly wishing to tear her flesh away.

She screamed.

" "

Her mouth opened, her lungs exploded out in pain, she felt her throat vibrate, but, no sound came forth.

"'_Sight, sound: they are yours to manipulate, to create lies to fool others.'" _the child stated behind Katara. _"Master's pretty smart and powerful, but she's not creative enough to be a true Darknessbender." _

Katara looked back, staring toward the child and her malicious grin, seeing the water loom next to her, waiting to strike.

Katara breathed in, knowing what was coming. Her eyes closed, embracing the darkness, trying to blot out her world. But, she couldn't.

She felt it again, the water pounding against her back, attempting to rip her flesh from her bones.

Katara was crying. She knew she was awake. She knew everything was real. But, she didn't want to. She wanted to wake up, to be lying next to Aang, and after a few short breaths, to think that everything was just a terrible nightmare.

"Aang..."

He didn't hear her voice. He couldn't. There was too much distance, too many twists and turns in the hallway to let anything but a scream be heard. A failure of planning: provide some level of privacy by separating the rooms as much as possible. It had been a good idea at the time, a good idea turned bad quickly. It took forever to get from one person's room to another, and all the rooms were so isolated, nobody could ever tell what was going on.

All he heard was the same rain pattering on the windows and his footsteps.

He was close to Zuko's room, a few short twists and turns away. A right was coming up, one of the last turns on the route to the Fire Lord's room.

He nearly ran her over as he turned. A quick half step and a skid. That was the only thing that kept the two from plowing into one another. The two were mere inches from the other, with an awkward single second of staring before they both staggered back.

"Twinkle toes!" Aang heard, "My heart nearly stopped there."

He was staring at her, staring at her face.

"Oh. Right. You're confused about me being near Zuko's room, aren't you. I... I just remembered something else about..."

Her voice trailed away, seeing the stance Aang was in.

It was a fighting stance.

"Twinkle... toes?"

"You're not Toph!"

"Aang, you're scaring me!"

"Quit acting like you're her! At the party, Toph was wearing some sort of perfume. But, you, you smell like machine oil. Who are you!"

"Smell? Odd, I would have guessed you would have given me a friendship speech."

It was still Toph's voice coming out. It still looked like Toph. But, it wasn't her. Any fear she was displaying previously was gone, replaced by a cruel smirk. Her voice was still hers but, as vicious as he had ever heard her voice be. Her tendency to look down and away from others, gone, replaced by her pupil-less eyes staring into Aangs', seeming to rip into his head.

"'Who are you,' you ask. If I were to tell you a name, you couldn't trust it. If I were to show my face, you wouldn't recognize it. If I were to use my own voice, it would come off completely foreign to you. I already attempted lying about my identity once to you. Who's to say I wouldn't try again?"

Aang let his hands fall, returning to an pacifistic stance. She wasn't going to attack him. He was sure of it. Something inside of him kept telling him that.

"You may not want to take solace in the fact that I have not struck at you. The other intruder is not so passive. The Fire Lord's buddy system was put into place for a reason."

"I'll be fine," Aang responded.

"I wasn't talking about you. You had to have sensed her. A feeling like somebody was watching you, but nobody there. Hearing sounds that seemed to come from nowhere."

Lighting flashed.

"It wasn't the rain."

Thunder rattled through the palace.

"It wasn't the architecture."

"Katara!"

"You are right to hold hostility against shape-shifters. But, you have the wrong one. The other is the one you search for. I'd advise you to hurry. Winds, flames, light, they weaken the illusions."

Aang was running by the time she finished speaking, running as fast as he possibly could.

_"Master, why do you let them do it?"_

_ "What's wrong?"_

_ "You could rule the world, master, fix it, prove to their citizens how much of a failure the bad guys are, hiding behind their promises and hope. But, you... you.."_

_ "This deals with the nightmare you had last night, doesn't it?"_

_ "Master?"_

_ "You toss and turn in your sleep. I see it. You woke up screaming last night. I heard it. And, now you have odd questions, ones children your age rarely ask."_

_ "Yes. Master."_

_ "Why do I let them rule? Because, I rule a different world. They rule one of tradition of purity, innocence, and light . You saw how all the Scorched Earth Colonies' residents used to worship me. I ruled their world: a new world. Their old called it corruption, an abomination of their essence, darkness. I call it progress, anyone with an open mind calls it progress. For now, their world is merely larger than mine. That will be changed."_

_ "Master, but you could rule everything. With your power, you could..."_

_ "No... no. Now tell me, what was your nightmare about?"_

"No!"

Aang looked into his room, seeing the destruction that had gone on. The room looked like a the fresh ruins of a battlefield, with scars that seemed to bleed clear water carved all across it. Shards of glass seemed to stab into the wood floor, with shreds of the torn curtain appearing to have been strewn across the floor.

A dark place, without life, without Katara. A place of nightmares for Aang. The love of his life taken, ripped away, leaving only a darkened room in its place.

And, in the middle of the darkened room, upon the bed, appearing as a pure white lily growing upon blackened and diseased soil: a note in a child's handwriting.

"Avatar, if you ever want to see the Waterbender again, you'll come alone to the main hall."


	6. Darkling

Darkling

A hall where so many smiles had been seen: it didn't fit. A hall where hours earlier, everyone had laughed under pleasant music, while they sampled the most expensive of foods.

It wouldn't fit: a hall where he had been told to go on a ransom note. One that he now walked toward, staff in hand, expecting a fight.

Toph had said it was a little girl. A little girl, younger than him: she would be what he was looking for. The other Toph, whoever she was, she had said she was a shape-shifter. He couldn't even look for her, just hope to sense her. He had to hope to catch anything that didn't fit.

He clutched his staff tighter. The main hall was coming closer. He could see the doors. He hurried. Katara was waiting.

The hall looked like they had just left. All the food was still in the same places, all streamers still up, the chair that Toph had stumbled over, still on its side, all the tables still out. But, he didn't see anyone. He began looking up, toward the ceiling, if he were to sneak up on anyone, he would try that way. Yet, he saw no hints of movement. Nothing that could possibly

"Aang!"

He nearly jumped when he heard her voice. It was Katara's. He looked toward her. She was running toward him, untouched by the child.

He grabbed staff tighter, and after a second of hesitation, swung.

A gust ripped down the hallway, toward him, past him, pulling the streamers off the wall, pulling him forward, and dissipating the lie.

Aang watched as Katara disappeared in the gust, revealing the truth.

Behind where she had been, the look of surprise clearly in her eyes: a little girl.

Toph wasn't lying. It was a little girl. She was young: ten at most. Her clothing and hair were neutral of appearing to come from any particular nation, but there was something about her face. Although her skin was a bit too dark, she almost looked like a few Airbender girls Aang had met before the war. At least, he thought she resembled them, her face was distorted in fear when he first looked upon her.

"Wh... what? H... how, how'd you know... it... it was..."

She was crying, terrified before Aang's skill, helplessly bawling like a normal child would have been. Even her voice seemed a normal kid's voice. Her actions had painted herself a psychopath. But, beneath all the lies, she still appeared to be a vulnerable kid.

Aang started walking toward her, surprised by the sudden change of events. He had been expecting a fight. But, somehow, he had expected to find something less human than what he saw before him.

He saw everything about the child. How pathetically she had slunk downward, how hopelessly she had appeared to be whimpering, her tears, her smirk, and her eyes.

She hadn't been crying. It was some sort of Waterbending: making tears appear on her face. She was a good actor. But, Aang wasn't concerned with being lied to. A flick of a wrist: that was what he was focused on.

A knife: a knife of water, slicing through the air, slicing toward Aang: water appearing out of the air and condensing into a blade, and hurtling toward Aang ready to slice him in half.

Aang swung his staff again. Winds whipped through the main hall, ripping at his clothes, pulling at his arm. He spun, so he could see it happen, but he knew the blade of water had been dissipated, returning to the air.

"I don't want to fight you," Aang stated as he completed his spin. The child was standing, staring toward him, but unmoving. Aang knew that much. He had caught her when she had moved. The echo that her feet made on the tiles of the ground, he could feel it. She wasn't moving. "With your bending skills you could do great things, but you're throwing everything away here."

She smiled.

"I am doing great things. I'm fighting evil."

"Who?" Aang responded, "Who's evil?"

"You are."

Aang blinked.

"What? I'm not evil! I'm the Avatar! I"

"_LIAR!_ You lie! You always do. You promised to save the world, to bring balance to it. You broke that promise. You turned your back on everyone. While my brothers and sisters were fighting in the war, you were splashing around. While they were getting stabbed and burned, you were on vacation. They all died, because you couldn't be bothered to end the war."

"I wasn't ready."

"_LIAR!_ You had the Avatar State since the day you were born. All those Bending Arts, all those techniques that you _had_ to learn: you couldn't even defeat the Fire Lord with them. You had to rely on the Avatar State to defeat him: the same one you use the day you woke up from your hundred year nap. You convinced the world that you're the hero. You lied. My master told me the truth, about who you really are. You wouldn't know her. But, she knows you better than you know yourself."

"I... I..."

"_You're a liar!_ You lied to everyone, let everyone lose those closest to themselves, and then you swooped in like you're the hero."

"My people died!"

"You let them die. You ran away. You had the Avatar State. But, you ran away. And, you replaced your people once you realized they were dead. In your head you took all the care they gave to you, all your love you had for them, and turned it into that Waterbender's love."

"No... no... I didn't, I..."

"How does it feel?" The child asked.

Lightning flashed.

"When you got your staff, you walked right past her, past that Waterbender. She was drowning, desperately crying out for you, but it all went unheard. By the time you got your staff, you she had to be unconscious hidden by my illusions. You probably were close enough to touch her when you grabbed it, but you never did."

"She's got to be dead by now."

Thunder boomed.

"...No... no..."

There was something about the way the child had said it, like it was the truth. Katara was dead. And as the thunder rumbled through the palace, he felt his chest shake and his legs give out.

He knelled, the only thing he could do.

"How does it feel?" the child asked anew, "Losing your everything and knowing you can't even do anything. You won't attack me. You'll kill me in rage if you did and, you can't kill me. That makes you a murderer. That makes you no better than Ozai."

Aang looked toward the child. Her smile was gone, replaced by a serious face.

"I'm going to walk out of here, and you can't do a thing to stop me. Maybe next time, next time the world needs you to deal with a problem, you'll deal with it, rather than letting it grow out of hand."

The child turned.

"Goodbye Airbender."

She turned back. She hadn't seen it, but Aang had. A slight rippling in the air, moving all around the room.

The child looked upwards, seeing the body. She stepped back in fear.

Winds burst forth, bearing a familiar smell, one of machine oil. They seemed to explode forth, shattering the illusion, revealing another person in the room: a woman with pale skin and glowing red eyes, ones filled with rage. They stared back at the child, condemning her.

"Ma-ster?"

_"YOU EVIL LITTLE BRAT!"_

Aang turned away, knowing what was to happen. He didn't see it. But, he heard the snap, and the silenced scream. He felt like he wanted to puke.

He forced himself to his feet.

_Darkness is not evil child. It is merely a liar. It hides truths. Those who cling to the light have demonized it, but it is not evil. You, child, as a Darknessbender, are not evil._

* * *

><p><strong>Well, if you've gotten this far, thanks for reading, it's been a great six chapters to write. As always: please review. <strong>


	7. Demon's Hour

Demon's Hour

The storm ended quickly. Constant rumblings of thunder and flashes of lightning of hours before were becoming rarer and rarer. Sheets of rain pattering on the roofs and windows grew quieter and quieter, turning into mere mists. And, the winds that seemed to wish to rip all the trees out of the ground hours earlier were disappearing into a light breeze.

Aang kept staring at the window, noticing something about the glass as his eyes lost focus. There was a slight reflective nature to the glass. He could see himself, a silhouette in a dark room. He wasn't alone either. Katara was standing in the door.

_ "Master, what was I?"_

_ "My child?"_

_ "I... I want to know about my childhood before I met you. I can't remember it anymore. Not like I used to. It keeps coming up fuzzy, like it's unraveling. I know it's forbidden, but, please... I..."_

_ "Alright. Alright, it was six or so years back. Scouts from the Fire Nation found your home, and what was your family in the northern mountain ranges. Your parents were dead, be it from acts of man or nature._

_ "You were brought back to their camp. Maybe it was something you said. Maybe you reminded them of their children back home. Maybe all the fighting got to the soldiers. I don't know. But, they took pity on you. And, at their camp, somebody noticed an unusual ability of yours: you could Airbend._

_ "Nobody knew what to do. You weren't the Avatar. You were too young, and although they questioned you about you weren't even a relative of his. You were just some random Airbender: perhaps the last Airbender. And, the Fire Nation had nothing to do with Airbenders._

_ "That was when my agents got involved, and brought you back to the Scorched Earth Colonies. You were so scared, so pacifistic, so weak. But, you had an opportunity to become so much greater. I offered it to you; you took it. So, I... I adjusted your bending, and made you a Darknessbender."_

_ "But, so, I... really, I am a member of those dead vegetarians?"_

_ "No my child. You were born an Airbender, but you became a Darknessbender, the same way a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. You completely ceased being an Airbender when you became a Darknessbender."_

_ "...Thank you master."_

_ "Now, who said it was forbidden?"_

_ "Um, one of the Slagbenders, master."_

_ "They were lying. I'll have to_

"Everyone's okay Aang. I just got done checking Zuko over. He was fine."

Katara's voice was quiet, almost afraid of interrupting Aang's silence.

"Are you going to be okay?"

Aang stayed silent. Katara could see his face's reflection in the glass. He turned away slightly, so less of his face could be seen in the reflection.

"Zuko's searching for anythign about that colony right now," Katara stated. "He heard everything she said after going down, he was just paralyzed."

Katara could hear her own breathing in the room's silence. It wasn't normal. Aang had never been that quiet. Yet, through the silence, Aang's voice emerged.

"I'm going to find her, Experiment 19. Whoever she is. Nobody's ever been that...that..."

"Efficient?"

"Yeah, efficient. Nobody ever defeated Zuko and me together, and she did it like it didn't even register as a fight. She... she just knocked us away like we were nothing. As long as she's out there, we're not safe."

"I know."

"I know it's here somewhere..." Zuko said.

Mai turned toward him. He was surrounded by boxes and boxes of scrolls arranged haphazardly around shelves of even more pieces of parchment. She had never even been in the room before that night, having always viewed its door as a decoration and not an entrance. As it had turned out, the room wasn't all that impressive: just more storage of royal seeming junk.

"So, what are we looking for again?"

"An old scroll."

"Not like there aren't enough of those here already," Mai stated as she looked around. There must have been hundreds of them. "It's getting late. You should go to sleep some time tonight."

"I'm fine," Zuko responded grabbing another scroll. "There was something about that colony the woman mentioned, something important. You paid more attention in school than I did. Do you remember anything about Scorched Earth Colony Four?"

"Oh of course," Mai stated, picking up an odd scroll on a table next to her, "Because if I did, the first thing I'd be doing is helping you rummage through your father's notes." She opened it for a mere second, a slightly embarrassed blush forcing itself across her face. "No." She closed it.

Zuko grabbed one as she spoke, and as he held it, he seemed to recognize it. Just holding it seemed to bring up an odd memory of his childhood, of an odd scroll that he had once read and been confused by. His fingers forced it open, looking at the all too familiar question in the far too familiar handwriting.

"How does a man defeat an immortal?"

"Is this a logic puzzle?"

"No. No."

He opened it further, sensing Mai's head over his shoulder, piqued curiosity at his almost reverent tone.

"The Avatar. Such power one must wield. Capable of stopping my first attempts at expanding our empire, capable of fighting the worst act of nature I had ever seen: more than capable of stopping the war. Armies would be crushed. Navies would drown against his power. Assassins would fall before they even knew what would happen. There had to be a way to defeat him.

"Many years ago, the last Avatar died, a Firebender: Roku. The next one should have been an Airbender. I used the power of the comet to destroy all the Airbenders. Yet, I found no Avatar. I scoured the globe for him, sent my armies crusading for any sign of him. But, he eludes me to this day. Too much time has passed. Even an incompetent child could learn his true power in this time. I know he's out there, waiting for the time to strike: an immortal preparing to strike down men.

"A man of science recently came to me, offering me an option. I took it. Twenty children were chosen. Twenty children of Scorched Earth Colony Four. Twenty children to ascend beyond normal human limitations. Twenty children to be given all the power in the world."


	8. Moonlight

Moonlight

The clouds slowly gave way to the moon, painting the rain soaked capital in shades of blue. The moon's reflection was everywhere. Each and every puddle seemed to reflect the pale white circle on a dark night. The water was still, a perfect mirror of the heavens above. But ripples began appearing, the perfect reflection faltering in trembling water, in fearful water.

The water was still for a while, echoing the stillness of the night. All winds had ceased. Any rain had ended. The entire world seemed to have stopped, a restful few moments in the dead of night, with all its people safely asleep in their beds. There were a few awake in the main palace, a few guards pulling night shifts, but all else, from the Fire Lord and the Avatar to the lowliest dock worker, all had finally fallen asleep: all except a few.

Through the pale blue light of the moon lit streets two small, blood red glowing orbs appeared, piercing through the streets: eyes, staring through the night. Blood red irises in an empty street, moving toward an unassuming door to an unassuming apartment.

_"Master, who do you always get mail from? You always keep getting letters from those same messenger hawks. Who are you always writing to?"_

_ "My child, how well do you remember the days before it all ended?"_

_ "Master?"_

_ "The last few days before everyone died, I sent my personal guards away, scattered them to the winds. You seemed to pick up on the gravity of the situation on that day, the kind of situation we were in. _

_ "My guards were scattered, but not lost, never forgotten. They now act as my eyes and ears, watching all the world and reporting it back to me. If their kings do anything, they and I, know about it. They're watching everything for me."_

_ "So, there are others alive?"_

_ "As much as twenty still free, and perhaps fifty prisoners. The Fire Lord was remarkable in his lack of thoroughness in searching for any of my children still free after the end. Actually, there's one in the capital itself, one of my guards even. We should be borrowing his apartment to prepare for the party."_

"Master?"

Two blood red irises looked upon the unassuming apartment, glowing in the dark room. It was relatively devoid of possessions, the room of either a soldier or a monk. The former was correct. The red eyes looked toward the man, the owner of the apartment.

"Master, you're alone. Where's..."

_ "Dead."_

The red eyes closed, holding back the tears of a mother with a lost child.

"What? How?"

_"She, she became blinded by her own desires. I... had to put her down."_

"If you believe it was necessary master."

The eyes opened again, looking toward mirror on the wall.

_"As long as she existed, they were not safe."_

The eyes looked upon their master's reflection: an aging woman, appearing perhaps as old as thirty, still younger than she really was. She took a step back, toward the light from the moon drifting into the room.

"Are you staying for the night?"

_"No. No." _The eyes looked toward the soldier,_ "Do you still have your armor?"_

"Of course master. If I had one thing to carry with me, I would"

_"Enough. I have a task for you. I spoke with the Avatar. He knows where we will meet. He'll find the place. The only question is if he will show up. If he does not leave within a week, I want you to go and remind him of his meeting."_

"Shall I use force."

_"Use fear. Fear is a powerful weapon. It brings the mighty down. A fearful enough man will do anything. If you think that force will cause enough fear in him to come along, then by all means. Just make sure that the Avatar leaves afraid. Make sure that he is too fearful to bring anyone with him, and make sure that the rest of his allies are too fearful to follow him."_

"Of course master. I have been waiting for somebody to test my skills on."

The woman turned toward the door, slowly walking out of the light of the moon. She stopped, her eyes looking toward the man.

_"Be careful."_

The door opened and closed behind the woman, the apartment returning to its previous state. Dawn was coming. In a few mere hours, the sun would rise. In mere hours, the darkness of night would be purged, wiped away, and relegated to mere shadows.

Seven days passed. Seven times the sun rose on the Avatar walking around as if nothing had happened, never noticing the same face in crowds near him, never recognized, but always there. Seven times the sun reached its apex over the Avatar walking about, never noticing the same face in the windows, watching him. Seven times the Avatar went to sleep, never noticing the figure in the shadows of the palace walls. Seven times the Avatar slept, feeling safe, never noticing the man eternally watching him, carefully noting his everyday actions, watching for the optimal chance to strike.

One more time, the sun rose over the capital with the Avatar in it. The sun would not set with him present. The man would make sure of that.


	9. Clear Night

Clear Night

Aang adored walking among the gardens of the palace in the morning of the week. It calmed him. For a few moments, every single nightmare that he was facing seemed dispelled, forgotten among the beauty of nature. For a few moments he would rest on the soft grass, listen to the flowing water of the stream, and watch as the flowers of the trees slowly let their petals drop the the ground.

Momo usually was out with him, floating among the trees and flying beyond the walls. For seven days, Aang never watched as Momo flew away, never watched as he flew past a man, completely still, coated in armor, that was completely foreign to all but only the most veteran of royal guards.

_"Alright, alright, sit down so we can get the initial uniform briefing done._

_ "One pair of armored combat boots. Proper wear and fit is that they are tight around the foot, extending to mid calf. If these are too high or loose, we can have them replaced. As always,blouse your pants into them. Your pants are a modified Fire Nation design, with a slightly heavier weave. Four pairs of socks are also standard issue. Those should be changed at least daily._

_ "These loops you see around your knee are for your knee pads straps. You feed them through like so. Do not wear them too tight. They should fit snugly, but the padding is there for a reason. If you cant feel your toes, something is too tight. The same goes for your cuisses._

_ "As with all other armor parts, the metal should not shine, but should not show visible signs of rust. Keep them as they appear now. Shiny uniforms may look nice, but they are less practical and require more precious time cleaning._

_ "Protection of the crucial arteries in the legs is provided by your cuisses, made of a similar riveted metal plates and leather strap design as your knee pads. We've tried to design them to inhibit your movement as little as possible while still being protective of the vital arteries. Minor stab wounds and shrapnel related injuries are lessened, but they do not make you immortal. If you ever see bright red blood spurting out of any wound, especially a leg wound, stop what you are doing, get to cover, and immediately apply a tourniquet._

_ "Belts are to be displayed over your top, showing you unit insignia on the belt buckle. Your buckle will be stamped some time within three days._

_ "Your top is made up of the same fabric as your pants. It should have a tunic like feel, stretching down to you mid calf._

_ "Here is your first layer armor made up an proven leather and wire weave that provides some level of flexibility toward your abdomen while lessening injuries. Above that is your second layer armor, your breastplate. It should extend to just slightly below your ribs. Although it weighs roughly double that of a similar Fire Nation armor design, it is significantly more protective. Its tested alloys have been proven to protect against any blade crafted to this day, and shouldn't become dented against roughly a rock the size of an average person's head being thrown at roughly average speeds of Earthbending moves. I wish I could have removed the shoulder armor and redesigned it. Fire Nation officials refused to allow that to be different. Impractical spike or an even more impractical helmet they said. I chose the spikes._

_ "Elbow pads are of nearly identical design to as the knee pads. As expected, sleeves are to be bloused, and tucked into the bracers. Your bracers are more heavily armored than Fire Nation counterparts, made out of the same riveted metal design. Gloves are of standard design. Try to keep your fingers safe._

_ "Here is your gas mask. As the standard Fire Nation design denotes its use for industrial purposes only, our combat designs are significantly more heavily armored. Do not perceive that as a chance to take more risks. Significant Earthbending will still crack your head open quite quickly, armored or not. The mask will protect you from shrapnel and glancing blows only. That and gas. Although our standard model is bulky, it provides protection against nearly double the amount of chemical and biological agents than that of Fire Nation designs. Filters can be replaced easily by turning here and pulling. Also, you have minor amplifiers, here and here. They make communication possible, although you still will have to speak clearly._

_ "Due to a few current incidents, all armor has been treated with a flame retardant substance. A lot of Fire Nation Soldiers are unfamiliar with us. In combat they may see you as an unfriendly. Defend yourself, but do not attack them directly._

_ "Now that the awful mandated briefing is out of the way, welcome to my personal guards. I look forward to your escort soon. If you have any questions, feel free to ask."_

Aang watched as Momo flew toward him, perching on his shoulder for a quick second. Something seemed odd. Momo seemed a bit twitchy, glancing around and flying off as quickly as he came.

Slowly, Momo turned to a silhouette in the sky, a single black dot among the clouds. They were completely still. A day without wind, without anything to pull the leaves off the trees or petals of the flowers. The water in the ponds was still, with the turtle-ducks being off in some other pond. He was alone in the gardens, with nobody around.

He closed is eyes.

Aang was wrong. He had thought that he was alone. He was never alone.

Aang exhaled.

Thump.

Something had landed in the grass near him, something oddly heavy, and metallic. Opening his eyes, he took a step toward it, not even thinking about the thrower.

Thump. Thump.

Two more things had landed nearby him. Aang froze, halfway realizing the truth about what was happening.

Ssssssss...

The smoke seemed to come from everywhere: gray smoke that seemed to be coming from the ground itself. Gray smoke that surrounded him, filling the air. His eyes burned, watering continuously, his skin felt like somebody had lit him on fire.

He inhaled.

His lungs burned. It felt like he had breathed in fire,burning his lungs continuously.

He started coughing. A constant hacking cough, like his lungs were trying to leave his body. But, they wouldn't. He just kept coughing, assured that he was about to die.

Yet, slowly through the sound of his own coughing, he could hear more thumping, rhythmic thumping. Somebody was moving toward him, somebody heavy.

He looked up, staring through watering and blurred eyes at whoever was walking toward him.

Through the smoke appeared metal armor: something Aang had never seen a design like: riveted metal, a design without beauty, industrial, a weapon of war at its worst. A gas mask stared back at him, one with tinted lenses to utterly deny any trace of the man wearing it.

"When do you plan to leave this place?" the man said as he continued to walk toward Aang. The ground seemed to quake with his every step.

"My master is not as patient as she used to be. Leave before I use something more than tear gas on your friends."

Aang felt the man's fist pound into his chest, throwing him to the ground, away from the gas, lying powerlessly on the ground.

He kept coughing, his lungs finally taking their first breaths of real air. His sight was clearing, enough to see the man of metal running toward him, ready to strike anew.

Such power the man had, to move so fast with such weight. A mere second, that was how long the man was running. A mere second for the man to be practically atop the Avatar, ready to strike anew. A mere second for Aang to close his hand and prepare as the man attempted to pin him.

His hand thrust outward.

There was silence as the the man flew backwards. A single second of silence, as Aang's Earthbending crumbled. A single second for the man to see the strike. Then he slammed against the ground, his breastplate immaculate.

It sounded like a tank had been thrown, ripping the ground apart with its weight.

Aang could hear him slowly rising to its feet, a sound of metal bending and rivets popping. He couldn't see it, he was running, fleeing the man that he had never seen before, but that brought the same primal fear that he hadn't felt since he had faced Ozai.


	10. Falling Moon

Falling Moon

Rhythmic pounding was heard all throughout. Rhythmic pounding that seemed to make all shake filled the air, and hidden beneath its sound, a smaller tapping and the sound of exhausted fear: flight.

On normal days, the gardens would be oddly quiet, separated from the rest of the world. The loudest screams wound would appear as quiet echoes behind the walls. On normal days, all the strife of a culture of war attempting to embrace peace would be absorbed and forgotten among the soft grass and leaves of trees. On normal days, serenity would rule in the gardens.

But, it was not a normal day.

Aang kept running. His lungs no longer felt like husks coughing out burning air. The feeling of his skin aflame had turned to a slight tingling. His eyes were clearing up, enough to see more than blurry colors through tears. The gas was gone, but the man in the gas mask was not. His footsteps: a constant pounding against the ground, a constant reminder to Aang that he was not safe. Tripping, giving into fatigue, looking back, and he would be crushed before a man of iron mere steps behind him.

_"Tell me my child, what do you know of elements?"_

_ "Master? Well, they're what separates us from those idiot flamers and the dirty..."_

_ "No, no. What do you know of nature's elements?"  
>"Oh. They're stupid master."<em>

_ "Do you at least know their names?"_

_ "Well of course master! What are you getting at master? Do you want me to say them out loud or something?"_

_ "Yes."_

Water.

Cold frigid water, up to his ankle, splashing against his leg. He hadn't even noticed it before. The stream in the gardens: impossible to miss, yet he seemed to have blinked and his foot was in it.

Aang couldn't stop running. The man of metal was mere seconds away, ready to crush him.

His foot pushed against the rocks. He had to keep running, but the rocks gave way. His foot slid backwards, twisting, his legs jerking desperately trying to keep on his feet, but he still fell.

He could the man of metal moving closer to him, hear the pounding growing louder and louder. As he laid on his chest, his shoulder ached, and his ankle throbbed. Had he sprained it? Had he broken it? He couldn't run on it. He could sense the man growing closer, mere seconds from being atop him.

A quick flick of the wrist as Aang rolled onto his back: that was his hope. A tiny whip of water moving faster than he had ever before: that was Aang's only hope to defeat the man. A tiny strike aimed at the man's eye: that was Aang's only hope: to stall the man somehow.

A hopeless strike: a small attack trying to stop a man moving as stones rolling downhill. The water struck at the mask's lens, cracking it, but doing little else to stop the man from moving to the crush the boy.

The man leaped into the air, moving to crush the boy in a single strike, a single downward punch striking from the heavens themselves.

Aang rolled again, watching the strike hit the ground near him. A strike that seemed to make the earth itself buckle and fold. Aang kept rolling, pulling himself to his feet, staring as the man rose to his feet.

Aang couldn't run. His ankle throbbed. He could limp, but escape was not an option.

The man turned toward him, looking as a monster from a nightmares: a faceless metal man looming over him.

_Water._

Aang struck, throwing gallons of the stream's water at the man. He hoped that the man would be washed away in the torrent of water he unleashed.

Right as the water struck the man, he seemed to flinch, thrown a single step in the flood.

_Earth._

Aang watched the step, recognizing the oddly heavy way the man stepped down. He was Earthbending, simple Earthbending: making pillars of rock and dirt rise from the ground, interrupting Aang's Waterbending.

The man turned toward Aang, rushing toward him. Aang inhaled.

_Fire._

Aang puched, exhaling and watching as the flames poured toward the man. He did not stop. The flames surrounded him. He ran through them, slamming Aang across the chest, throwing him to the ground. Aang swirled the air around his hands. The man was practically atop him. Aang was at his desperate last option.

_Air._

Winds whipped against the man's armor, winds ripped against them, but all for naught. The man was unaffected.

Aang froze. The man's arms flexed, causing dirt and small rocks to surround them. Aang thought he was about to be beaten to death by the man. Aang through wrong. The rocks and dirt turned black, sickly looking and began falling off the man's arms, revealing new metal: corrupted black metal.

"You will leave immediately, or I will drag your broken remains back to"  
>GOOONG. GOOOOONG. "Intruder!" GOOOOONG. GOOOOOONG. "Intruder in the gardens!" GOOOoong. "I CAN SEE HIM!" Gooooooong. "MOVE MOVE MOVE!" Goooong.<p>

Within seconds, the man was running, fleeing the guards moving to capture the new intruder. Aang could feel his thumping. He couldn't escape.

He rolled onto his stomach, looking toward the man.

Aang inhaled.

It was ironic. All throughout the war, he had fought Firebender after Firebender, all of them trying to kill him or capture him. But, one year later, they were saving him.

He exhaled. Frigid air exited his lungs, gusting toward the man of iron.

Clothes soaked by Aang's Waterbending froze in seconds. Armor became coated in frost, sticking to itself. The man was stopped, surrounded by guards.

Aang inhaled and exhaled slowly. The gardens were a mess of sound and action. Aang closed his eyes, wishing it was an ordinary day, wishing the gardens were peaceful once more.

_ "Yes."_

_"Water. Earth. Fire. Air._

_ "They're still stupid, master!"_

_ "No, my child, not so much stupid as outdated. They served their purpose well, bettering man for millenia. But, their age is ending. They are getting too old. They will die out soon. The Avatar is no different. He has served his purpose well. He maintained this world for centuries. But, all must die._

_ "A new world must rise in its place. We are the way of progress. The Scorched Earth Colonials, my children, you: you are the future. You are the way._

_ "A new world is being forged by its new god. Their borders of old: crumbling, fading. Their elements of old: reforming, being born anew for the new way._

_ "Slag. Holocaust. Darkness. Flesh."_


	11. First Light

First Light

_ "Slag."_

_ "Slagbending is the bending of war and conquest: the bending of metal."  
>"Master, can't regular Earthbenders bend metal too?"<em>

_ "Well, yes, in its most basic form. They take the metal, pound it into the shape they want. If they want a sword, they pound it into something that looks sharp looking. If they want armor, they pound it into roughly the shape that they want. A Slagbender forges the metal, makes it sharp, makes it protective. Frankly, a Slagbending made blade would literally cut through an Earthbending made blade."_

_ "Ooooh."  
>"It's not the Earthbenders' faults. They think of the metal as an extension of their earth. So when they bend metal the bend the earth inside the metal. Slagbenders are the opposite, they bend the metal in earth."<em>

_ "They can bend earth too, master?"_

_ "And fire my child."_

_ "Earth, fire, and metal? Seriously, you made them overpowered."_

_ "As for their Firebending and Earthbending, it is exceedingly weak: a remnant of their former lives. A child's Earthbending would be stronger than theirs. That is because their metal is sufficient to defeat any foe."_

_ "If you say so master."_

_ "Slagbending focuses on presence. All its techniques focus on improving the human body with metal: making it run faster, hit harder, take more punishment. By some standards a Slagbender will seem eerily similar to a non-bender. Both focus on punches and kicks. Mind you that a Slagbender's punch will likely crack a bone in half. A Slagbender, especially compared to benders of other elements, must always focus on closing any distances therefore. It lacks any truly ranged attacks, but at point blank range is unstoppable. Its brute force is unmatched even by Earthbending."_

_ "To make clearing such distances even survivable, much less feasible: I designed their armor. Slagbending powered armor type 58. I think we are on right that one now: armor designed to protect them without slowing them down. I think type 59 will probably be lighter. Second floors are still something rather risky."_

_ "Your super-awesome shock troopers can't go up a second floor?"_

_ "On buildings with very cheap construction, upper floors tend to buckle beneath their significant weight. Still, if in doubt, they tend to level the buildings anyway. Or they'll burn it down."_

Icy winds whipped at Aang's face. Icy winds of never-ending oceans, whipping at his face and eyes. He could taste the salt of the oceans below, clear blue water stretching on for what seemed an eternity.

Appa had been flying for two full days and a night. Two days of seeing the same skies and the same water beneath: of sleeping on whatever small island would appear before him near sunset. But, on the second night, there were no islands: nowhere to rest. Through the starry skies, he could see clouds on the horizon, clouds, and what appeared to be an outline of land.

He closed his eyes, knowing what was to come. He could hear the warning of the man in the gas mask. Two days and three nights prior, surrounded by guards in the gardens of the palace, he heard the man speak.

"My master is not one to keep waiting boy."

"The red eyed woman?"

"Such heresy. To call one such as her a mere woman. If it would not anger her: I would cut out your tongue and burn it for uttering such offenses.

"Any request from her is not to be taken lightly, boy. She may appear a human, but her reach is worldwide. She may be somewhere: but she has agents everywhere. She may have eyes of flesh, but she sees all. She may walk the upon the ground but the heavens would bow if she so willed it. If you think that myself failing to defeat you will stop her from meeting you, you are mistaken.

"She will likely strike out at your friends if you keep her waiting any longer."

Aang opened his eyes, feeling the icy wind on his face. The warmth of the gardens was all in the past, replaced by a never-ending sea. The sky was changing: turning into the twilight of mere moments before dawn.

He could see the outline of the land clearing before him: dead land. Black and gray rock devoid of life forming jagged peaks. And through the natural peaks, he could see the all to familiar shapes of architecture.

Before Aang was the remnants of Scorched Earth Colony Four: an empty city of iron and rock. It seemed the epicenter of the dying ground: a black heart that poured its toxic blood upon the earth nearby. It seemed to salt the ground, pollute the air with a death cloud, and turn the oceans into foul sludge.

He couldn't understand how he had made it there. Logic would have said that he would have gotten lost in two days of flying over an ocean. He should have gotten lost. But, it seemed that the very air itself guided him to the dead land.

He could see the first light of dawn peeking over the mountains. A blinding white light appearing over black and dead rock: dawn had finally come.

Another morning in which the light of the sun rose to purge the world of the darkness of night relegating the darkness to hide in mere shadows: every morning it was the same.

The sun would rise, bringing with it the sound of all the world stirring. But, there was no sound. No birds flew around him. No fishes seemed to swim beneath him. Yet, somewhere inside that city was the woman: a god waiting in a dead land for the spirit of the world to come.

Appa began descending.


	12. Fog

Fog

Dawn had come over the dead ground. The sun had risen over the city, purging the darkness of night over all that was before it. But, the shadows remained. Shadows always remained.

Within second of first light, clouds formed all across the sky: dark gray clouds that blotted out the sun. It seemed that rain was due any second. But, it never came. The fog came instead, seeming to flow all throughout the city: a pale gray cloud flooding streets so that only the tips of black buildings were visible.

Aang looked upon the city. As long as he was on Appa, he was safe, away from such a place. But, he had to go.

Aang stood up and gripped his staff tighter.

"Appa, when I jump off, I want you to fly away from here. I'll be back here tomorrow, come back then. Goodbye buddy."

He jumped. Appa watched as the glider opened up, watching Aang fly away toward the city.

He couldn't do anything but close his eyes and fly back the way he came. Aang would have to be fine in the city on his own. Only, he wasn't alone.

_Good, good. Now fly up toward the fortress on top of the big hill, Avatar._

Aang could see the hill: uncountable steps rising out of the fog, leading up toward stone walls. And, poking above it, a massive palace of rock. It seemed so large, so imposing: so capable of squeezing out the last vestiges of any feelings of significance. Towers soared high above, seeming to watch over the entire city.

_I welcome you Scorched Earth Colony Four. Now, pull up._

Aang was scarcely above the fog. He could see the buildings with architecture foreign to him. Neither Fire Nation, nor Earth Kingdom, nor Water Tribe nor Air Nomad design truly resembled it. It was something new: something darker, something that seemed to squash out any sort of feelings of significance and individuality.

_Stay out of the fog, Avatar. You're at enough of a risk just flying over it, don't tempt fate. Pull up._

Aang looked down toward the buildings: small stone boxes poking above the fog, except for one larger one. A monstrosity of stone towers poking above the fog, seeming to be in the exact center of the dead city. There was a broken window near him: smashed in: large enough to fly through.

_Seriously, pull up. _

Aang ducked under the fog, a slight moment ducking into the white river. He couldn't even see the ground beneath him the fog was so thick.

_Avatar don't you dare think about it. Don't you even try. This isn't funny. PULL UP._

The broken window was getting closer and closer.  
><em>Avatar! PULL UP!<em>

A blink and the open window was behind Aang. He was in the building, in a large office with an even larger desk. Seas of scrolls filled scrolls in it, but it didn't look like it had even been touched in years. The entire city hadn't seemed to have been touched in years, but somehow, he felt like he wasn't alone, like somebody was near him.

He coughed slightly.

_You stupid little brat! Do you have any idea how much danger you are in? Get. Out. Of. There. Now!_

Aang could hear movement, a sound of footsteps nearby. He wasn't alone.

_This is not funny, you idiot. GET OUT OF THERE NOW!_

Aang looked at the open door, a completely unimpressive entrance to another hallway. Nothing was nearby, but the noises of footsteps were growing closer.

_YOU STUPID LITTLE AIRHEAD. GET OUT OF THERE NOW!_

Aang turned, looking on the desk, seeing some odd scroll. There was something odd about it, something oddly formal seeming about the parchment it was written on.

He reached out to grasp a corner, feeling a slight ticking in his throat.

_LISTEN TO ME RIGHT NOW! I SWEAR I WILL RIP OUT YOUR YOUR LITTLE FU_

Cough.

_Oh. Oh sh- just, just don't move. Stay there. And, try to keep from elevating your heart rate. I'll be there, soon. Just don't move. _

Aang's hand closed around the piece of parchment.

_ "_Going somewhere?"

Zuko turned toward the same smile, the same curl of lips that he had expected, the same person in the same position as always: Mai leaning in the doorjamb.

"You ought to know," he said quietly back.

"Yeah, yeah, tell him I said hello."

Zuko turned away, about to take that same first step.

"You should wear a hood," Zuko heard. "It unsightly for the present Firelord to go to see a former Firelord."

He started walking.

"Be careful."

Zuko knew the risks. The political backlash he faced each time he met his father, the amount of distrust his father had for him, the amount he had for his father: each time the two met, Zuko swore he would never speak with him again. But, there was always that next time. He shouldn't even be going. Normally he wouldn't be going. He would have just passed it off as lazy record-keeping. But, it all seemed too convenient. The woman had said she had come from Scorched Earth Colony Four. But, about the same time his father inherited the throne, the colony disappeared off the map, reports from it seemed to stop coming, and anything describing it ended. Something had happened about the time his father took throne. And, whatever had happened had taken a colony and all its inhabitants with it.

Zuko grabbed a hooded robe.

Cough. Cough. Cough.

The parchment Aang picked up was old, seeming to be a century in age. Holes were forming in it, but, it wasn't rotting. He picked it up, moving toward the door. He could hear footsteps, shuffling, some sounds of movement getting louder, getting closer, thumping on the ground, constant thumping. Somebody or something was nearby. Aang wasn't dumb enough to think it was friendly. He closed the door, an oddly heavy door for such a normal office. With any luck, perhaps he could hide from whatever it was outside.

He slunk down, feeling the same tickling sensation in his throat, preparing to read whatever he had picked up and wait.

Cough. Cough. Cough.

"MASTER LOG: OFFICE OF DOCTOR SAR."

"EXPERIMENT 20. FAILURE."

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

The footsteps were on the same floor. Aang was sure of it.

"RESULTING PROPERTY DAMAGE: FOUR FLOOR TILES, TWO TABLES, ONE LARGE RUG. REIMBURSEMENT WILL BE DELIVERED FROM FIRE NATION IN APPROXIMATELY A FORTNIGHT."

Thump. Thump. Thump thump. Thump thump thump.

Footsteps growing closer, growing faster. Something was moving toward him, headed straight for the door.

"TRUE TO FORM, BENDING CAPABILITIES WERE BECOMING ETTATIC. SUBJECT BEGAN LOSING CONTROL OF BENDING, APPEARS TO HAVE BURNED AWAY FLESH WHILE LOSING CONTROL OF FIREBENDING."

Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock.

Whatever it was, it was outside the door. Aang silenced his breath. A single sound, a single loud exhale, and whatever was beyond the door would be in the room, attacking. Aang couldn't make a sound, but as he tried to avoid it, he felt a tickling sensation in his throat. The knocking continued.

"EXPERIMENT 19 IS APPEARING TO SHOW SIGNS OF STABILIZING. THOUGHT CONTACT WITH OBJECT 34 WOULD KILL HER. 19 IS COMATOSE FOR TIME BEING. HAS SURVI"

Cough cough.

The knocking stopped.

_ "My child, you've never seen a Holocaustbender, correct?"_

_ "What's a Holocaustbender?"_

_ "I didn't think so. There is a very good reason for that. Holocaustbending is a horrid, terrible bending o use: the bending of death itself."_

_ "Like, they do a fancy move and poof, you're dead, master?"_

_ "No. Not really. When they bend, its more like thousands of bombs being released before them. They are immune to the effects, but everyone else is not. Imagine that power at your fingertips. Imagine becoming death itself. Man should not. Man cannot. That is a power for a god alone."_

_ "Great, some great new Bending art and only you get to use it master?"_

_ "There were others my child. Fifty or sixty years ago, they were common enough that every Scorched Earth Colonial knew one. But, something always goes wrong. Of the twenty or so that I had, fourteen committed suicide within the first month of using their Bending in practical situation, one went insane and had to be put down, two swore to never use any Bending ever again, and the rest committed suicide within the first three years of using their Bending in combat. I eventually made a very, very toned down version and taught that one to one of my disciples. Took forever to make those metal limbs for him too. And, that version was barely stronger that regular Firebending._

_ "Real Holocaustbending is unreal. The sheer power that one unleases in a single blast. Most would view It as a blinding white flame. Its really so much more. That white flame is really the air being set aflame by the sheer power one unleashes. And, when that power strikes something: thunder itself seems silent: the air flees so fast that flesh could be ripped from bone in the gusts: and the ground buckles from the shock-wave that is released. Its a power for only a god to have, the power to kill man and god alike: to raze cities to the ground and begin anew. _

_ "But, Holocaustbending does have its weaknesses. Although a user can use weakened Airbending to evade attacks, it lacks really any defensive moves, on top of it being a walking fratricide incident."_

Cough. Cough. Hack. Cough.

Silence ruled. Silence ruled as Aang got to his feet. Silence ruled as Aang fled the door, knowing what was to come. Silence ruled for a single second, before the door was smashed in.

CRASH!

The door seemed to explode into the room, slamming against the desk, throwing it aside.

THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.

Aang chest was pounding, his heart beating harder than it ever had before as he watched it walk into the room. It was staring right at him.

Cough. Cough. Cough. Cough.


	13. Clearing

Clearing

_"Well my child, I think that you have a pretty good idea of Darknessbending, am I right?"_

_ "Not at all master."_

_ "All right, that's enough of your jokes. I guess, since you are already so familiar with Darknessbending, that the only Bending that I have not explained is, well, Fleshbending."_

_ "Another secret bending, for only use by a gods, as in yourself?"_

_ "Not at all. Darknessbending was the Bending of absence, Slagbending: of presence. Holocaustbending is the Bending of death, Fleshbending: the bending of life."_

_ "Life? Like poof, that dead tree is now alive, poof the corpse is now dancing and breathing, poof the"_

_ "That is quite enough. And, no not quite like that. To bring something or even someone back from the dead, another must take their place in the crypt: usually the Fleshbender. What Fleshbending can do better is supplant life, make it better. Imagine the sick becoming healthy, severed limbs growing back, the blind being given sight, dying crops turning to lush fields of green. Normal men do use it. That is why the Scorched Earth Colonies have the massive hospitals they do."_

_ "So, it takes the healing effects of Waterbending and loses the whole lets-create-a-flood effect. It seems kind of weak."_

_ "Tell me my child, what would happen if for a year no farm lost a single crop, not a single grain of rice became sick?"_

_ "Nobody would go hungry, master?"_

_ "Yes, but crops would rot. Food would become worthless. Farmers would be unable to make a living. And the next year, famines would be commonplace. And, what else would happen?"_

_ "People would die?"_

_ "But, from what other that starvation?"_

_ "Long lectures, master?"_

_ "What grows in waste? Disease. Plagues would grow in the rotting crops, and plagues are a form of life."_

_ "Fleshbenders can make plagues, master?"_

_ "They can make the flowers blossom or trees whither: make all the world rot my child."_

Cough. Cough.

Metal claws ripped through the air. Fingers of blades tore through the air, slicing into the massive desk. They had missed.

A quick roll, under the strike, under the legs. Aang was behind the thing, something so human seeming. It probably even was human at one point, but not anymore. Metal skeletal limbs seemed to grow out of stumps, ending in fingers of blades. Every bit of flesh seemed sickly, pale and gray. But, there was little exposed flesh. Aang even recognized the armor design. It was the same armor that the man in the gas mask had worn, all those days ago in the gardens, but it was missing parts. Entire pieces seemed ripped away, stripped to make lighter, or perhaps stripped because of something else. The gas mask was still intact, rusting and seeming to be cracked and scratched. Aang hoped that it would not be removed: something told him any face would give him nightmares.

Aang could hear the desk cracking. The claws had gotten stuck. He took a breath, preparing for the wood to split.

Cough cough hack cough cough..

Something felt like it was rattling in his lung. Was he sick? He could barely breathe.

Snap.

The wood had split. He could sense it and hear the two halves fall to the ground. Aang ducked. He knew what was coming next.

Fingers of knives sliced the air above his head.

Aang spun, slamming a gust into the thing, throwing it across the room, into the table.

Cough. Cough. Cough. Hack.

Aang was looking down, forced to a knee. His lungs felt like they were burning. His head seemed to be spinning. He could hear the footsteps, though: the footsteps of an abomination of flesh and metal getting up and turning.

Aang looked up.

The thing was rushing at Aang, uninjured, unfazed, and seemingly unstoppable.

"No tea?"

Zuko turned to look at his father: a former Fire Lord seated in a cage, holding himself as if he were still on a throne.

"Not now. Not ever." Zuko stated. "I'm only here because you have some information."

Ozai eyes looked toward his son in curiosity.

"What sort of things would only a former Fire Lord know?"  
>Zuko sat down. He was in control. He held the throne. But, there was something about the way his father spoke, something about the way he held himself that made Zuko feel like he was merely the prince once more.<p>

"The Scorched Earth Colonies. Number four in particular. I know you know about it."

Ozai's eyebrows lowered in confusion.

"Now, why would you be so concerned about such unimportant things? Of all the colonies, why do a few tiny ports in the middles of nowhere draw you here?"

"It's important. Now tell me what you know."

"Fine. Fine. A humble prisoner obeys his Fire Lord. The Scorched Earth Colonies: a simple plan to create small Fire Nation friendly port cities for refueling and resupplying our navies adopted by Fire Lord Sozin. But, Scorched Earth Colony Four..."

Cough hack cough gack cough.

Bricks flew, pounding into the things chest and head, knocking it back, knocking it away.

Aang cough feel something in his hand. He had coughed something up. He could feel it. He moved his hand, taking a slight glimpse before the thing rushed at him again.

Blood red foam.

His eyes looked up.

Metal claws swinging toward him. Aang ducked, watching the metal claw cut into the shelving above his head. The thing was practically above him. He could hear its breathing even.

It was inhaling.

Aang's eyes opened in surprise. It wasn't just inhaling. Behind the mask, lights were glowing, orange lights, flickering lights. It couldn't have been, but Aang still rolled underneath it, knowing what was to happen.

Flames poured out through the cracks in the lenses, through the hole in the bottom where filter once was, through the holes where the amplifiers would normally be, incinerating the wall, burning the scrolls that were in the shelves.

Black smoke filled the room.

Cough. Cough. Cough. Hack. Cough. Gack.

Aang could hear the thing moving, turning toward him. He looked up slightly, watching the monstrosity of flesh and metal turn toward him, its back to the flames. Aang's eyes were watering with the smoke, his head spun, his lungs burned.

Cough. Cough. Cough. Hack. Gack. Cough. Cough.

_CRACK!_

"That particular colony had some special research going on in it," Ozai continued. "I didn't know that much about it. Your grandfather might have been able to tell you more of the details, if your mother hadn't been so..."  
>"Just tell me what happened to it!"<p>

"Fine. It citizens revolted, destroyed my precious ships, bit the very hand that fed them. They rose up. I put their uprising down in some of the most brutal fighting in the war. House to house, room by room, they fought back. Several of my first attempts were routed even. I still somewhat wonder how they fell. It seemed that one day my second attempt was being routed, and on the next, no signs of life were being reported by my scouts, just the same old creepy fogs."

Ozai leaned forward, staring his son in the eyes.

"Now tell me, why would you be so concerned about such utterly pointless history?"

Zuko looked down.

"Somebody claimed they were from that colony: a woman with red eye, a voice like a whisper, and a god comp-lex..."

Zuko stared at his father eyes, opened wide in surprise and fear.

Cough cough cough ghack hack cough.

Aang couldn't look up. He couldn't seem to do anything. Continuing kneeling was becoming increasingly difficult. His head was spinning, the world was spinning, twisting around and seemingly trying to throw him to the ground. He couldn't even breathe normally. As soon as he inhaled, the constant hacking cough would return, coughing up more and more of that same red foam.

It seemed that was the only sound: the sound of Aang's troubled breathing and constant hacking. He couldn't even hear the footsteps of the thing anymore.

_Thu-thump._

Aang looked up. He had heard that sound. A body had fallen: a human body. His eyes could see the thing's body, a lifeless, motionless husk lying on the ground. And, beyond it, shoes and a dark robe. He continued looking up, knowing it wasn't a ghost of any sort, merely another figure in a gas mask, a figure with glowing red eyes: the woman: Experiment 19. She looked upon Aang.

_ "This fog..."_

Her voice seemed to rip into Aang's head, stabbing into his brain, seeming to remove any of his dizziness for a few seconds.

"_This fog is a plague, a water transmittable disease that fills the never-ending fog around here. It works horrifically fast. A cough, a simple progressively worsening cough, is the first and only symptom before the infection has taken the host. But, unlike most plagues, death is not the end. Death is merely another part of the infection."_

A skeletal finger pointed toward the abomination.

_"That is the end result."_

Cough. Cough. Cough. Hack. Cough.

The feet were moving, her shadow growing closer to Aang, seeming to loom over him, seeming to eclipse him. Even though Aang was coughing, he knew something far worse was happening.

Everything felt wrong, like something that was never meant to happen was on the verge of taking place. It seemed to silence his cough, destroy his sense of the physical, force him to freeze as the woman grew closer and closer.

The earth and heavens seemed to shake in fear.

Something pricked his neck, a small needle stabbing delicately, causing it to feel colder.

He began looking up, feeling the pricking feeling end, feeling the bad feeling lessen, watching the woman back slowly away.

_"That will keep you alive. Now please pick up on the idea that when I directly decide to force my way into your skull to tell you something, it generally is mildly important."_

Cough. Cough. Cough. Cough.. Hack... Cough...

Everything was blurring and growing darker as Aang began coughing, the entire world fading into the shadows, everything except two blood red orbs.

Aang fell.


	14. Awakening World

Awakening World

It was a beautiful day.

_ "LISTEN! NOW!"_

Everyone was out. A town, fully awake, fully present at its central square, a town watching a single woman.

_"This town has been given many gifts. It has enjoyed more freedoms than any of the other occupied towns. Curfews are the latest in all the world. Taxes are some of the lowest in the Earth Kingdom. Your Earthbenders have been allowed to walk free. No other towns have been given such a blessing."_

The woman: the experiment, was immaculate, pure white robes, surrounded by men of steel: blank faceless gas masks surrounding the entire scene, forcing peace.

_"These privileges are due to one thing: compliance. You have remained peacefully under our control. You gave us peace, we gave you freedom. It is a far trade."_

A town, completely controlled by fear, forced into submission by an action of control, forced to watch as the entire scene unfold.

_ "Compliance enables us to let less troops occupy this town. Compliance enables you to live without our troops on every corner. Compliance enables peaceful lives."_

_ "You have shattered that peace."_

A town, seemingly to shake in fear as one singular being. A town forced to watch themselves be condemned.

_"We have heard whispers of rebellion in this town. Your Earthbenders meet during the night. Your smiths make swords and spears in their free time. These weapons get hidden in your fields. You expect us not to see it. We do. We always do."_

Screaming.

A mother was screaming, desperately trying to stop one of the gas masked soldiers from walking toward the experiment. Something was in his arms, something screaming: a baby crying.

_"The Fire Lord has been a kind ruler, a father to this town. He gives you gifts. He lets you grow. He only asks for compliance to his rules. You break these rules. You must be punished."_

The baby was next to the woman, its mother trying to struggle toward it. She was slammed toward the ground, bawling for her baby.

_"This infant is the most recently born child in this town."_

The mother kept screaming as the more of the men of metal moved toward the woman _Children are the future _and the baby was screaming as the men of metal surrounded it and pouring something on it _This baby is your future _andthe men backed away showing the baby covered in lamp oil and the baby was screaming and the mother was screaming and the entire town seemed to be a mass of terrified whispers each knowing the fate of the baby _Anyone who rebels has no future._

The woman inhaled.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!"

"Just... just a bad dream."

It wasn't a beautiful day. Across the dead ground, dark clouds has once blotted out the sky. Slowly, winds had removed some, leaving cracks in the clouds, reminders of the heavens above, unreachable shades of bright blue hidden by the dark clouds above, hidden so that no natural beauty would ever reach the ground, never reach the skeletal black buildings of the city.

Aang sat up.

Shadows ruled the room he was in. He could see in it though: a large room with a wall of windows. It was nearly empty even, except for the bed he was in, and a desk on the far side.

Aang inhaled. The rattling feeling in his lung was gone. The constant burning pain in his lungs was gone. The plague was gone. He could breathe completely regularly.

Aang got out of bed, slowly realizing that hours had passed. He felt like he was asleep for a mere blink, but something told him that he was really asleep until mid morning. All the animals and birds would be awakening around the same time he was, if there was any other life in the colony.

He was fully clothed, only missing his shoes, left beside his bed. He began putting them on.

_"Master, what are we going to do? Master!... Mas-ter?"_

_ "My child... they... they throw off their god, just as I did their king those weeks ago. They claim I am evil, because they are forced to fight for their sovereignty, for their freedom from an evil king. So be it. Their former lord is tenacious. He will return to subjugate them. When he acts, I will offer this colony an ultimatum. If they want no god, they will have a king to die under. If they want no king, they will have their god to save them. If they want neither, they do no deserve to live in this world."_

_ "M... master?"_

Mirrors lined the wall to Aang's right. One reflection after another appeared, showing Aang walking toward the desk on the far side of the room. There was something on it, a scroll, the same one he was reading before. The experiment had to have picked it up.

Aangs fingers clutched it, feeling the same century old seeming parchment. He looked at it recognizing the same first line: "MASTER LOG: OFFICE OF DOCTOR SAR." he began reading where he had left off.

"EXPERIMENT 19 WAS WOKEN UP ON SCHEDULE. HAVE BEGUN TESTS. APPEARS TO BE COMPLETELY STABLE, EVEN IN LONG TERM. OBJECT 34 APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN THE PART WE WERE NEEDING. HAVE BEGUN PREPARING TO IMPLANT OBJECTS 25, 53, 71, AND 94 IN HER. SOMETHING SEEMS ODD THOUGH. BENDING APPEARS DIFFERENT WITH HER. 19 APPEARS TO BE BENDING DIFFERENT ELEMENTS EVEN. HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS IN ANY OF THE OTHER TEST SUBJECTS. MUST RUN TESTS ON THIS. 19 MUST HAVE BEEN VERY BUSY IN HER COMA."

"Don't worry," Zuko said. "Aang will be fine."

His eyes looked away from Katara, and out the window, looking upon the oceans well below. He could feel the engines of the airship rattling, shaking as it flew toward the colony.

"Aang's a smart kid. He knows enough to avoid getting into anything that he cant handle," Mai reassured. She leaned back upon the sofa.

"Then why are we going to help him?" Katara demanded.

Zuko looked back toward her. She didn't trust his statement.

"We... we're just going to..."

"We're going to bring that woman to justice," Mai blurted out. "Aang doesn't know that she's a wanted criminal."

Zuko looked toward Mai, his mouth still agape and searching for a word.

"You know that's a lie," Katara said. "We're going because you're not entire sure Aang will be fine, aren't we?"

Zuko looked toward Katara.

"Don't worry. We're just going to"

"Aren't we!"

Zuko looked away. She had realized the lie.

"Don't worry," Mai said.

"SOMETHING ODD HAS TAKEN PLACE. HAVE BEEN MADE INTO WHAT 19 CALLS A 'SLAGBENDER'. WAS STANDING NEAR A SCALPEL AND IT BEGAN RATTLING. 19 APPEARS JUBILANT IN THIS. SHE CLAIMS SHE MADE ME INTO THIS. WHILE I'VE BEEN RUNNING TESTS ON HER, SHE APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN RUNNING TESTS ON ME. SHE EVEN CLAIMS SHE CAN DO THIS WITH ANYONE THEORETICALLY. BEGINNING TO THINK "_It's like you're reading my diary."_

Aang turned toward the sound of the voice.

Mirrors and windows lined the walls. Mirrors lined the walls, seeming to show the same image: a boy staring up in surprise. There were dozens of Aangs, dozens of him staring in surprise, dozens more reflected by the windows behind him, dozens showing the same surprise at dozens of shadows and dozens more red eyes staring back.

Aang stepped back slightly as the experiment began walking to his right.

"Who are you?"

_"Experiment 19. Do you not remember?"_

Aang's eyebrows lowered.

"No. What are you? And what is object 34?"

The experiment looked away, staring toward mirrors, as if inspecting herself, slowly looking toward one of Aang's reflections.

_"Object 34 was..." the experiment began saying slowly, "It was the very essence of a forgotten Avatar. According to the legends, he or she shed his supernatural powers for a mortal, normal, life, sealing them into a small totem. In older times, wars were waged over its existence, with each side hoping to obtain its awesome power."_

"So where is it now?" Aang asked before a slight smile of the woman.

_"As for me, well, my full designation is 'Ascendant Project: Bending Induction and Amplification Experiment 19'. I was, along with all the other experiments, designed to be a solution for the problem that your existence raised. How does a man defeat an immortal? The answer is quite simple seeming: become immortal themselves. And thus, the Ascendant Project was formed: a way to create a god."_

"Where is object 34!" Aang demanded.

_"Come now, you must have sensed it," the experiment said as she looked toward Aang in the mirror. "The way my voice echoes in your head, how I seem to know things that only you would know, something feeling off when we first met, the way I can bend four different elements."_

"No," Aang responded.

_"It is a fundamental nature of man to attempt to rise beyond anything that stands above it. You stood above man. I was their attempt. When I came into contact with object 34, it became a part of me. I ascended beyond the power of mortal men, and I became a god."_

Aang watched as the woman turned toward him, staring him in the eyes. The same orbs of red ripped into his head and heart as she began speaking anew. He could see his reflection, see himself in the mirror: a boy in the shadows of dark and dead world.

_ "You are a part of me and I am a part of you. We are each others' reflections in the mirror, the spirit of the world descended to walk as a mortal, and a mortal ascended to the level of the spirit of the world." _


	15. Rising Sun

Rising Sun

"_We are each others' reflections in the mirror, the spirit of the world descended to walk as a mortal, and a mortal ascended to the level of the spirit of the world."_

The fogs had long since cleared. Nonstop hazes that seemed to fill the air in the night ended as the sun rose. The light of day had been cast upon the world, awakening it as the sun began its slow climb toward its apex. Slowly, shadows were disappearing in the new daylight.

Aang watched as the woman began walking toward toward the window, slowly looking out it. He understood. She was giving him time to react. In untold eons, no Avatar had ever dealt with such a situation. Man's boldness had never been allowed to grow to such extents. None had ever created any being to directly challenge the control of the very spirit of the world. It didn't even seem possible. But, she was perfectly capable of seizing his position. He knew she was.

"Then why did you have me come here?" Aang glared at her. "Do you want to profess your love to me? Am I here just so you can gloat? Do you want to kill me and prove that you can? What is it?"

Aang sounded like a child betrayed by his parent. He knew he did. He knew the woman knew the same. He merely watched as the woman slowly looked at him without expression.

_"Do understand that only a very sick mind would even consider the possibility of any romance between the two of us."_

The woman spoke oddly slowly, as she looked back toward the window. There was something old seeming to Aang. The look that the woman gave Aang and the way her voice sounded: they were the first time the woman had ever shown any sort of age. Aang had always thought of her as a woman in her thirties. He knew better though. He knew she was decades older than her body let on.

_"Perhaps you think,"_ the woman stated as she looked out the window, _"that I am still loyal to Ozai. The war my children fought alongside his countrymen is over. It ended when I swore the Scorched Earth Colonies' independence from the Fire Nation. And, that was merely a short chapter in the Fire Nation's war of conquest. You ended that war. On the day you awoke from the ice, that war was over. The Fire Nation had merely not realized their inevitable defeat. Ozai was a fool to keep fighting once he was certain you were alive. He was always a fool, a young man who thought himself a god."_

The woman looked toward Aang.

_"You and I are gods. You and I alone have the right to remake the world as we see it."_

Aang swallowed slowly as the woman took a single step toward him.

_"What I want to discuss, and therefore the reason I had you come this far, is, well, your influence. You may believe that because you are the Avatar, your will is law. You will, in time, understand that as a god, micromanaging the world is not the best course of action. I want your word that you will not interfere with me and my plans." _

"And what are your plans?"

The woman looked back toward the window.

_"You and I are gods. We alone have the right to remake the world. When I ascended, I looked upon the Bending Arts. I reformed them in my children. I remade my children. I redesigned nature to serve man better. Slag, Holocaust, Darkness, Flesh. The people of these colonies: the Scorched Earth Colonies, I realigned the spirits for them: made them my new Impure Benders. I was their god. But, Ozai, he viewed himself their master. He tried to rule my children. They rebelled. He killed them."_

The woman turned toward Aang.

_"I want my children back."_

The sun shone into the room. Aang hadn't realized it, but the clouds were dissipating over the city.

_"I'm going to start anew, recreate my world, my Impure Benders. I want your assurance that __you will not interfere."_

Aang took a breath, inhaling slowly.

"How many people have you killed?"

_"What?"_

"How many people have you killed?" Aang repeated.

The room was silent as Aang inhaled again, a silent noiseless space between two beings of absolute power.

_"I,"_ the woman began saying, _"I will admit I have taken life. In my century of living, I cannot even begin to remember how many I have taken. But, do remember that I was a part of a nation at war. Taking lives of those who would do my children harm was necessary. It may seem easy for you, a child of peace who has never truly seen war, to believe that it is wrong to kill, that it is immoral to take another's life, but the very nature of war is immoral. So yes I will admit I have taken lives, but every one of them was in defense of my children."_  
>"Why did you unleash that plague upon your children in this colony then?"<p>

_"What?"_

The woman was staring at Aang, a look of surprised anger on her face.

"Your children, the people of this colony when it fell, they were rebelling against you weren't they? They wanted to be rid of you as much as you wanted to be rid of the Fire Lord. So you killed them. Didn't you? They wanted neither a god nor a king, so they didn't deserve to live in your world. A plague for somebody who knows how to manipulate flesh, make the flowers blossom or the tress whither, make all the world rot, it would be well within a god's capabilities, wouldn't it?"

_"How would you know!" _she hissed at him. Aang recognized her tone. He was right. She had been caught lying, and the expression told him that she was furious. It was as if she felt that he didn't deserve to know the truth.

"I've been hearing your voice from time to time. I thought I was just spacing out and my imagination was playing tricks on me. I've even been having nightmares about you. But, they're not nightmares and my imagination is not playing tricks on me, is it?"

The woman's eyes opened wider in surprise. Her anger was disappearing.

"If you are a part of me and I am a part of you, we're connected. You've been able to see what I see, even speak with me through that connection. So, why can't I do the same? If you see into my mind, why couldn't I see into your mind?"

Aang took a step toward the woman.

"You're not going to hurt anyone else. I won't let you. If you try to redeem yourself, if you try to do good things, I might let you reform your city. But, otherwise, no. Never."

The woman's eyes closed as Aang turned away from her. Her anger was gone, replaced by her seeming utterly defeated. It seemed that she was about to cry. Aang grabbed his staff, preparing to leave. He had his bison whistle. Appa would hear it.

_"I guess,"_ Aang heard, _"I guess I had hoped it wouldn't be this way. I guess I had hoped that you would be so fearful, so desperate to protect those you loved that you would have completely submitted to any of my demands. But, you leaving after denying me my right will not happen. Either you will accept, or you will die. They was what I had decided." _

_"Goodbye Avatar."_

Aang turned back, watching a whip of metal fall from the woman's sleeve. He gripped his staff, prepared to move, attempting to move but being unable to.

He was powerless to even resist as the whip of metal grabbed him, pulling him off his feet, dragging him across the room.

He tucked in his head, closing his eyes and exhaling as hard as he could, knowing what was about to happen.

CRASH!

A small shield of air had hit the window just before him, shattering it.

His eyes opened.

He watched the glass shards sparkle in the sunlight as he fell, watched as the woman's hateful eyes stared at him as he fell closer to the ground.

Another blast of air stopped his fall, threw all the shards of glass well away from him.

He had known it was to happen.

His feet touched the ground, but his head had stayed fixed on the woman. Her eyes were locked with his too, staring at him as he fell.

He couldn't stop it.

Skeletal fingers pointed at him, skeletal fingers that seemed to belong to death, skeletal fingers that began to glow with a terrible power.

As much as he tried to convince himself otherwise, he knew the truth.

He ran, sensing the power that was about to be unleashed. More and more air was building up, preparing to protect him at the last moment.

He and the woman were destined to fight.

He could feel the heat behind him. He let the air loose, spinning, jumping, throwing walls and walls of earth behind him. He covered his ears, closed his eyes, took a deep breath and tried to blot out the entire world seeming to explode behind him.

If he had appeased her, they would fight eventually.

He could feel the rocks crumbling behind him, feel the shockwave deep in his chest. The air was howling as it went beyond his wall.

If he had appeased her, someday a black shadow would fall over the world.

Slowly Aang opened his eyes. He stood up and looked back. His wall of earth fell as he turned, revealing the same hateful eyes.

He knew the truth.

The woman slowly stepped toward the broken window.

She knew the truth.

Aang gripped his staff.

It was a simple fact.

Out of her sleeves came long metallic claws, knife-like talons stretching down to her knees.

The two weren't fighting.

Aang took a step toward her.

They were absolutes: purifying light and corrupting darkness.

Slowly she stepped out of the window, descending toward the ground.

They weren't fighting.

Her robes touched the ground.

They were colliding.

For a single second, a single breath, the two were still still.

And, by sunset, only one of the two would remain.

Slowly, the two began charging at each other.


	16. Time of No Shadows

Time of no shadows

The sun had reached its apex. All across the world, the sun ruled in its heavenly throne. All across the world, the shadows were disappearing, except for one place. Against nature, the fogs had returned to the dead city, rising higher than they had ever. In that fog, shadows merged with reality.

Aang stood frozen. The woman was out there. He knew she was. He could see her. Or at least he thought he could. A shadow in the fog, appearing to grow closer before disappearing once more: that was what he saw. He could hear her moving: a slight echo of a footstep polished stone. And, there was another sound: metal scratching against rock. It was rarer. An occasional sound that ripped through his ears, a sound always coming from behind him.

He ducked.

A gauntlet of blades ripped through the air above his head.

She was not fooling him. Darknessbending lied to the eyes and ears. He saw her through his feet.

He began turning, moving to spin around her, finding himself caught.

She had grabbed Aang.

Right at his collar, her skeletal hand had grabbed his shirt.

Aang began feeling pulled backwards. He watched as the ground before him turned to the sky above him, his feet giving out.

The gauntlet stabbed downwards toward him.

Aang rolled, watching the gauntlet hit the ground, watching it begin to drag along the ground as it followed him. He kept rolling, slamming his hand against the ground, bending the earth, throwing it above him, watching it stop the woman's gauntlet, giving him the few seconds to get to his feet.

Clang.

"He's going to be fine," Zuko repeated.

"No, no he's not. It's a trap for him, or she'll, she'll try to kill him," Katara repeated.

Clang.

"I think we're the ones in trouble here," Mai said as she sat up.

"What makes you think we're in any trouble?" Zuko asked as he turned toward her.

Clang.

"I've been in these things before. They don't make random clanging noises."

"Aang's not going to make it. That woman is too dangerous. He'll die if we don't help him out."

Clang.

"There it goes again."

"I really don't need this," Zuko muttered to himself. "Katara calm down. Aang's craftier and smarter than you think. He'll think of something. Mai, its probably just steam in the pipes."

"I've heard steam in pipes. This sounds like this whole airship is falling apart."

Clang.

"Is it getting closer?" Mai said flatly before Zuko.

Katara turned and began walking toward the window of the airship. For a few fleeting seconds, the room was quiet, but not peaceful. Katara was looking on the horizon, as if horrid black clouds would appear over the place where Aang would be fighting.

"Katara," Zuko began saying, "Aang will be" KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

"Are we getting our in flight meal?" Zuko heard as he began walking toward the door. Maybe one of the crew would be there, ready to silence Mai's ever present remarks about the clanging.

He opened the door.

Katara turned, frozen and shocked as she saw the reflection in the glass. Mai sat up. Zuko stepped back.

A massive man stood in the door, a massive man clad in metal wearing a gas mask with a cracked lens: the same colossus of a man that Aang had fought in the gardens those few days before.

Clang.

The man stepped forward, the entire airship seeming to shake as he stepped toward him.

"You will not interfere."

Earth rose out of the ground. Walls of rock rose from the polished stone tiles, seeming to block out the sun.

It had never seemed so weak.

Aang heard the explosion, felt it seem to rip his walls apart. It was like fighting Combustion Man all over again.

Another explosion went off as Aang felt the footsteps reverberate through the ground.

She was moving, attempting to get around his walls to strike him from behind.

Once more, the air around his wall seemed to explode.

He turned, seeing the woman standing behind him, her hand closed.

Aang froze.

He tried to swing his arms, but could not. He tried to take a single step, but could not. He tried to blink, but could not. His entire body seemed to seize. He had felt the feeling before, even before the war had ended, the feeling of utter helplessness. There was a a full moon the night it had happened.

He felt himself fall to the ground, helplessly bowing before the woman.

She was walking toward him. He could hear her gauntlet rip against the ground, hear it tear into the earth: an awful sound. Slowly her feet touched against the ground over and over again: a rhythmic tapping, almost like a heartbeat hidden beneath a screech of metal scraping against stone.

He closed his eyes.

A flash of blue and Aang was on his feet. A single flash of blue and glowing tattoos and the very air around the woman had become violent. A single flash and the woman was thrown, rolling back to her feet. In a single flash eyes glowed both blue and red in the same space.

Clang.

The man took another step into the room, slowly turning his head to look toward the inhabitants of the room, pausing to look toward Katara, turning as Zuko began to move, jumping, swinging on the metal piping above his head.

Zuko inhaled.

Flames burst forth, bathing the man in an unsurvivable blaze, scorching the door-frame behind him. No human would survive. No human could survive.

The man had.

His arm seemed to thrust out of the flames, grasping Zuko's leg, pulling him, seeming to wish to rip his leg off his body if he would not let go.

The flames dissipated, revealing a hulk of a man kept safe beneath metal and leather armor.

Katara was rushing toward him, one slow step after another as her arms moved outward, pulling water with her fingers.

Flames burst forth toward her. Flames thrust forth from an outstretched hand, blocked only by quick footwork, and even quicker Waterbending.

Knives dinged against the breastplate, a fruitless effort from an powerless fighter.

Zuko slammed against the ground. His grip had given out, and for a split second, his entire body seemed to have given out with it. His laid on the ground powerlessly as the man of metal stepped over him.

He could see the man grabbing something from the door-frame, a piece of metal: the door-frame itself, ripped from the wall, swinging toward Mai, striking her, throwing her to the wall.

Zuko jumped up. Katara was rushing at the man again, water preparing to slice his armor open. Within a second he had inhaled, flames swirling around his hands.

The man of metal stood between water and flames.

Half an ocean away, the world seemed to explode.

Both blue and red had glowed in the same space again.

For a single second, Aang had looked like he would win. For a single second, it had appeared like he would have defeated the woman. For a single second, the woman's arms had been restrained by the earth. For a single second, fear had appeared over the woman's face. But, that single second ended.

The air glowed, as the woman's fear ended. Aang had ducked, protecting himself beneath a veil of earth. Aang knew what was to happen.

His ears were ringing by that point, ringing with each explosion.

Glowing red eyes stabbed into his head and chest as he got to his feet. Even if he couldn't see her eyes, he knew she was staring at him. He could hear her breathing and her footsteps. They sounded as if they were in his very head.

Aang gripped his staff tighter hearing the woman's claw tear into the very ground beneath their feet, gripped it tighter than ever as she rushed toward him.

He turned toward her, his eyes glowing blue before the shadow with red eyes that loomed over him.


	17. Falling Sun

Falling Sun

The fogs had ended, disappearing before the winds. The fight had caused it. Winds ripped across the dead city's polished stone streets and skeletal buildings, removing all lies.

The sun was out, but Aang didn't see it. It was early afternoon, but Aang didn't care. A few clouds loomed overhead, but Aang couldn't care. His eyes were focused on the woman. They had to be. Through exhausted breath and ringing ears, he heard her speak.

"_I can end this now_," she began saying as she walked over a small mound of earth, "_This doesn't have to be this way_." The woman sounded exhausted, as if every breath was coming with increased exertion. "_If you'd just let me have my children back, just let me recreate my world, this fighting would end. You say I have to atone for my sins. That would be my atonement. To pass on all my knowledge to the next generation is the greatest thing I can possibly do_."

Aang turned toward her. The woman was lying. He knew she was.

"_All you have to do is allow me, and this fight would end_."

"And what happens if you do bring back your children," Aang began saying, "What happens if you bring back your children and they rebel again."

The woman turned slightly away from Aang.

"_They won't_."

Her voice seemed oddly quiet to Aang as he took another step toward her.

"You won't let them, will you?"

"_What_?"

She had turned toward him.

"Tell me the truth."

"_That is the truth_!" The woman was stepping over the rubble and overturned earth, walking toward Aang, as if trying to convince him. "_The only reason they rebelled was the war, the horrible things forced upon us all by the nature of the fighting. But, before the war truly showed its worst, they adored me. They loved me. I loved them_."

"That's a lie. You don't want children. You want worshipers. You don't want to have people to grow under your tutelage, you want people to bow down before you with your every step."

He could see the woman's face, see the angered look in her eyes. But, it wasn't the same sort of anger and rage Aang had been so used to seeing every time she had looked upon him as they had fought. It was as if he had insulted her in a way that she had never been.

"_Why, why is it that you keep acting like you know what I think? Why is it that you keep painting me a complete monster? I'm not. Do you think that I gained some sick pleasure in unleashing that plague upon them all? Do you even think that I wanted to kill them all? And, do you think that ever since then, I haven't rethought every single second of that day. Do you think I haven't regretted my actions, gone through every single one of my decisions and believed that there was some better way?_"

There was something odd about her voice, something sincere, something truthful seeming. But, Aang was sure she was lying.

"_Don't think for a single second that I haven't regretted every decision that led down that path_."

The woman was nearly crying.

"_Don't think that for a single second, I haven't heard their voices and the echoes of lives cut short in my head_."

Every single thing about her seemed to reek of sorrow, but Aang was sure she was lying.

"_And, don't you dare, for even a single second, don't you dare think that I don't miss all of them_."

Tears could be faked, expressions lied, emotions could be acted. And, she was proving to be very good at faking.

"I know you're lying."

Aang could hear the woman inhale, hear the slow inhalation. He could see her expression return to same rage he had seen for so long.

"_What keeps telling you that_!" she hissed.  
>"I just know."<p>

"_You don't know_," the woman said slowly. Her voice screamed through Aang's head, seeming to make the entire world become silent and still for a single second as she spoke.

The world seemed silent as the woman paused, silent as her hand raised, silent as she pointed at Aang, silent as the air around her fingers began glowing a blinding white.

"_You will never know_."

The air burst into flames before her, exploding and screaming toward Aang. Rocks jutted forth from the ground, exploding as the flames struck them, slamming against the ground. A flash of blue and new rocks burst forth, air spiraling around them, hurtling toward the woman.

The fogs had returned in a second, small white clouds around the two's feet rising to their calves. Aang was more than familiar with the trick by this point, more than familiar with the image of his strike passing through a shadow. But, he sensed no footsteps.

There was only a slight glimmer above him, a slight glimmer in the afternoon sunlight ending as it grew closer to Aang, flesh, cloth, and metal appearing out of thin air.

Aang ducked as the woman's claws swiped above his head, blades slicing through the air. But, there was something else hidden beneath the danger of the strike, an all too familiar glowing in the air around the woman.

Aang began stepping back, eyes opened wide to the danger, eyes glowing in a flash of blue.

Metal creaked in the sky.

Through exhausted breath, Zuko could hear the creaking. It was deafening: the loud sounds of an airship groaning, as if the very airship was unwilling to bear the man's weight.

Zuko had thrown one Firebending move after another at the man, but it had seemed to be all for naught. Flames died on his armor, heat dissipating in seconds around the man. The man seemed immortal, uninjured by the worst the three could throw at him. Merely, he kept slowly walking toward the three, reaching toward the piping above them all, grabbing one, pulling it, ripping it in two, and pointing one side toward the three, steam pouring outwards.

Zuko couldn't move to avoid it. He didn't have the option. There was no way to avoid all the scalding air pouring toward him: a wall of heat flooding outward as if to fill the room, man and all, with the Fire Lord first to be burned alive.

Instinct saved him. Not his. A quick spin of a Waterbender, pulling boiling water out of the air and slicing through metal piping in a quick strike, forcing the steam toward the ceiling.

Water pounded against the man's armor, throwing him slightly forward, stumbling before the strike.

The airship seemed to creak for a single second as the gas mask turned toward Katara, an eye behind a cracked lens seeming to show utter hatred. There was silence as the man threw himself toward Katara, tackling her, knocking her toward the wall, Katara falling toward the ground, moving to get to her feet as a mass of metal and muscle slowly walked toward her.

Everyone knew what he was about to do. He was about to end her resistance, end her consciousness with another blow.

Ding.

A knife had struck against the armor on the man's back, hopelessly bouncing off it. Mai was all but useless against the heaviest armor fielded to that day. She knew it, Zuko knew it, Katara knew it, and the man knew it. Still he moved toward her, as if her very existence in the fight was an insult, metal creaking as heavy boots slammed against the floor.

It seemed the man had taken no more than two steps, two long and slow steps, before Zuko's flames began to pour against his side.

The flames were dying away, burning out in blackened, scorched earth. Aang had survived the explosion. Rocks had risen protecting him, armor of the very stones keeping him safe.

Aang began rolling onto his hands and knees. He had felt that explosion, he had felt it worse than any of the previous ones. Even through the armor of rocks, he had been thrown, helplessly tumbling as rag-doll in a windstorm.

He glanced toward the woman, a skeletal figure standing in the center of the crater she had left. She was staring at him, her eyes, her eyes red flames around pupils of black coals.

Aang's eyes glowed again. He wasn't even on his feet and his eyes and tattoos glowed anew, throwing him back into the battle.

Earthen mounds rose as he got to his feet, monoliths of rock rising off the ground, exploding forward as he began walking toward the woman.

He could see the woman as the rocks hurdled toward her, see the glow that was beginning in her fingertips, different than any glow he had ever seen come from her: a glow with a bluish tint.

He could hear the crackling, see the arcing begin as the woman's arm began rising, pointing toward Aang. Everything seemed to be bathed in blue light, positively glowing blue around the woman, everything except for two red glowing orbs.

There was a flash as the lightning burst forth, burning away the monoliths of rock as it shot toward Aang's outstretched fingers.

He could see the woman rushing toward him. But, he wouldn't release the lightning back at her. Her lightning was different, stronger, more lethal, as if Ozai's lightning was a mere crude imitation of her power, as if nature's show of fury was nothing more than a shadow of hers. If anyone were to get hit with the lightning, they would be killed in an instant.

He could feel all the power entering his stomach, it could burn through him in a single second. It even seemed to be. The feeling was slight, but his arms were tingling, as if he were being destroyed by all the energy in him. The feeling was not going to last. He could feel the power moving through his shoulder, moving up his arm.

His eyes glowed blue.

In a single flash of blue, his eyes and tattoos glowed with a terrible blue light, his arm turning.

His hand moved from the sky toward the woman, trying her as her lightning arced around Aang's fingers, judging her as the lightning left his arm, condemning her as it left his fingers.

There was silence as the lightning exited Aang's fingertips, silence as the blue glow left Aang's eyes and tattoos, leaving a terrified boy staring at the horrid act he had committed, powerless to stop anything as the lightning flowed toward the woman.

"_AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!_"


	18. Burning Sky

Burning Sky

Ding.

It was an all too familiar sound: a tiny throwing knife hopelessly bouncing off metal armor. They were merely distractions.

Water ripped against the metal armor, hopelessly falling against the hardened steel it had intended to cut. Katara's strike had failed, only angering a man coated in unstoppable armor.

She watched as the gas mask slowly turned toward her, the airship seeming to shake in fear as the man's boots slammed against the ground.

Desperately, hopelessly, Katara began scrambling to her feet, trying to evade the mass of armor that was about to crush her. Hopelessly, her legs pushed up, her body rising, her hands finding something, anything to grab against as she tried to get back up.

It slammed against the back of her head, right above the neck: knuckles coated in steel. It slammed against her, and her entire body seemed to go limp, helplessly falling to the floor.

The airship shook as the man turned toward Zuko and Mai. Katara was unmoving, unresponsive to their yells and screams as the man walked away from her.

"No!"

Aang began running across the dead ground, running toward the dying body. Dead lungs attempted to take in breath, a dead heart attempted to beat, and dead limb cried out in pain of the lightning that had burned through the body: the lightning that had ended their fight.

Yet, slowly, an arm began moving, dragging itself across the ground, dragging itself toward the burned chest.

Aang could see it in her face: pain desperation, and fear. It was a person, hopelessly trying to resist its own body's desire to die, a face turning red as its body suffocated, hands shaking as they tried to reform a heart and lungs out of the black and scorched, shriveled remains.

Each step that Aang took seemed slower and slower to the woman, the rhythmic tapping of his feet seeming to lose its beat. Darkness was creeping into her vision, the darkness of a body losing itself to its lack of blood and air, the darkness of death.

Ba-bump.

A beat, a single sounded through the body as the hand began focusing on the lungs. Slowly it began increasing in tempo blood oozing from around the hand as flesh and sinew began regrowing.

Ghack, hack.

The woman coughed, old dead air being forced out by the new lung, old dead blood being coughed out, drooling out of the corner of her mouth.

She inhaled, new fresh air entering a lung, her body seeming to slow in its shaking, the darkness retreating in her eyes. Her hand moved, beginning to repair her other lung, as she rolled onto other elbow and knees.

Aang's feet grew closer and closer, the rhythmic tapping kicking up rocks, the remnants of his volleys toward her. He had to be mere steps from her as she began coughing again.

Blood splattered over the polished stone bricks, the bloody remnants of her destroyed lungs and heart, her last repairs beginning as she coughed up more blood, a sign that her lungs had been repaired enough.

She could hear him, he kept repeating the same thoughts and words over and over again, the same idea over and over again: how did he purposefully try to kill her? He kept apologizing as if it was some mistake, some unforeseen reason his fingers had pointed at her. But, she didn't need his sympathy, and he wasn't solely apologizing to her. He had broken his own rules, thrown his own thoughts away. As much as he was apologizing to her, he was apologizing to himself, begging for his own forgiveness as he took step after step toward her.

"I'm sorry. Please, let me help you. Please, let me help you. I can"

"_GET AWAY!_"

It pounded against Aang's stomach: flesh twisted and malformed, the remains of an arm that had been twisted and rage and fear.

Aang began falling toward the ground as the strike left him. The arm began returning, attempting to reform into a normal limb. Muscle and skin collapsed upon itself as ligaments and tendons reattached, joints falling back into place.

The woman coughed again, more blood rising from deep within her lungs. There had always been a reason. In the hours of fighting, as she had tried over and over again to kill Aang, there had always been a reason she had never chosen to use it. During the entire fight, when she had used her own corrupted versions of Bending on Aang, while attempting to fool him with Darknessbending, while attempting to blow him up with Holocaustbending, while attempting to cleave him with Slagbending, there had always been a reason why she hadn't used Fleshbending. It was too intricate. If she ever lost focus, if she ever ceased from restraining it completely, her Fleshbending would grow out of control.

She coughed again, staining the stone tiles in crimson.

Blue light appeared in Aang's eyes and tattoos. He had stopped falling, beginning to float up toward the heavens, the air swirling around him.

There had always been another reason. In a fight as desperate as she was in, there was another reason she hadn't bothered to Fleshbend. She had always known it. The two had always sensed it. Whenever they found themselves close together, whenever they appeared as if they were going to touch one another, something had always seemed fundamentally wrong, as if the world was going to crack open. That was the reason. The two were absolutes, purifying light and corrupting darkness. If she had Fleshbended, if she had dared to touch him, they would collide. And, somewhere inside Aang, millennia of past lives would all awaken.

In their eyes, her very existence was a crime, mankind holding up a totem that an ancient had dared to seal a great power in. Man had dared to call itself a god in corrupting the power sealed inside: threatening to destroy the balance of the world in its hubris. And, she was the effect.

The woman, Experiment 19, stood up.

Aang was gone, submerged beneath a tidal wave of past lives, all wishing to do justice through his hands.

It wasn't a fight between the woman and Aang. It was a fight between Experiment 19 and the entire Avatar state.

Ding.

Mai's knife bounced harmlessly off the man's armor. It was hopeless. As much as she tried, as much as she kept throwing knife after knife at the joints or what seemed like a weak point, every strike was for naught.

The man began running, metal boots slamming against the floor as he pounded toward Zuko. A breath, heat, flames, all burst forth as he ran, but for nothing. His fist slammed into Zuko's chest, throwing the Fire Lord backward, his back slamming against the wall.

Through dissipating flames, Zuko could see the man, rearing back, preparing for a second punch that would send him pounding against the wall again, and he could see Mai. She was running toward the man, sliding toward his feet, trying to deny his footing.

Her foot struck true, but the man seemed unaffected, as if she had kicked a wall, as nothing had happened.

Zuko felt the man punch again, felt it pound deep into his stomach, watched as the man's fist pulled back, his body turning as his fist struck Mai's face.

Zuko watched as her body was thrown backwards, her arms limply flailing as she hit the floor. He heard the man walking away from him, stepping toward Mai.

Zuko looked up, his arms against his bruised stomach.

"Call the captain," the man said as he stood over Mai. His palm stretched outward toward Mai, ready to strike and end her life. "Turn this airship around."

Zuko got up, moving toward the intercom. He wasn't about to let Mai get killed. He took a breath, knowing what was about to come.

Water pounded against the man in armor's back and legs, throwing him off the ground, against the window.

Zuko had seen it, a slight glance out of the corner of his eye: Katara barely conscious, using the water that had been in the steam pipes overhead, attempting to get as much together as she possibly could.

The glass cracked, shattered, the man flying out the window, falling to the oceans below.

Experiment 19 exhaled, knowing there was no way to fight it, no way to hold back and live. Slowly, she inhaled again, feeling the disgusting feeling in her arm, feeling the growths begin in her back. She couldn't control anything anymore.

Skeletal tentacles burst out of her arm, so that no hand could be recognized in the mass of flesh twitching and wriggling beneath her elbow. Even more began bursting out of her back, stabbing through her clothing.

And, her other hand was changing. Slowly, her flesh was merging with the metallic claw, so that she could not recognize where metal ended or flesh began. Sinew and metal seemed to merge, so that separation was impossible.

Small mountains of earth and rock were rising around her, the Avatar preparing to strike. Experiment 19 looked up at swirling mass of the four elements that pulled themselves around Aang's body. She closed her eyes.

He looked toward the Experiment.

A monstrous rock began hurtling toward her.

Her joints popped as she looked toward it, eyes still shut. Her face showed something changing, teeth seeming to grow pointed and stab out of her mouth.

Her eyes opened, still red, glowing brighter than ever before.

Her arm shot toward the rock, flesh and sinew stretching to unseen limitations, her skin ripping apart, exposing muscle tissue as her fingers of knives stabbed into the rock.

Within seconds she was hurtling toward the rock, spinning around it.

For a short second, the Avatar's and the Experiment's eyes locked, blue and red shining out as the sun began falling.

Knives of water began shooting forth from around the Avatar, stabbing into the rock where the Experiment had stood. He hadn't seen it, he wouldn't until it was too late.

Metal fingers grabbed the Avatar's head, ripping him from his nebulae of elements, slamming him toward the ground. Flames shot from his hands, burning the exposed muscle, forcing a twitch in the metal hand, and releasing him.

A scream, an inhuman howl of pain shook throughout the dead city as new air surrounded the Avatar, the boy's body facing the source of the scream, seeing the blindingly bright light.

Explosions pounded across the ground, cracking the earth as the Avatar rose back into the heavens, hurtling toward the Experiment, flying past her in the blink of an eye.

Water had wrapped around her leg, and before she had realized, she was being pulled after the Avatar, thrown past him, flailing and spinning ever higher.

The arm shot forth anew, aimed at the Avatar, fingers of blades slicing through the water, slicing through the air, ready to stab, ready to taste blood.

Air swirled around the blades, a frantic dance playing out before the knives, pirouetting before the strike, air rolling along the length of the arm, and a swirl of utter hatred behind it all, the Avatar, slowly turning behind the Experiment, air swirling around his arm, swirling and building in his hand, ready to explode outward with a single strike.

His hand struck, a single light touch beyond her right shoulder, a single light touch that seemed to have the force of a thousand explosions, the woman's body helplessly thrown forward, toward the ground, into the dirt and stone that lay below.

"Ow..."

Zuko looked back Katara covering the gaping hole on the airship where their front window had been, replacing it with ice. She didn't want to though. The ice was hard to see through, leaving the crystal clear sky and water a foggy and hazy mess. So, she seemed willing to let the icy winds rip at her face just to be able to see the slight hints of what was happening.

"Next time," Mai said as she began rolling onto her feet, "Next time we get better security. What is this? Two times in less than a month that they let intruders get through."

Katara kept looking out the small hole she had left open, watching as the clouds swirled in the horizon. It was as if a storm was on the horizon, and somewhere in the eye of it all was Aang.

Red eyes looked upon the sky, staring up at the horizon, watching as mountains of earth began rising off the ground, blocking out the heavens.

Slowly the Experiment watched as the mountains of earth began rising, rocks circling around the Avatar, his eyes and tattoos glowing with a blue light that seemed to wish to purge her from existence.

The earth began falling again, moving to crush her under an unfathomable amount of dirt and stone. It blocked out the heavens for the Experiment, blocked out the ground for the Avatar so that he could not see the swirl of the tentacles, see the all too familiar arcing as the tentacles pointed toward the rock, lightning releasing forth.

The Avatar never saw the rock pounded into the ground around the Experiment, unable to see through the dust all around the. The air whipped at the dirt, never to move quickly enough to see the mutated remnants of a hand shoot through it all, sinew snapping as it stretched beyond normal limitation, skin ripping apart with mere patches remaining, muscle fiber pulling to new limitations as the tentacles wrapped against the Avatar's throat, throwing him to the ground.

"Katara," Zuko said as he walked toward the trembling figure, eyes staring at the horizon, "He's going to be fine."

Icy wind whipped at Katara's face as she stared toward the storm on the horizon, it never ended, frigid wind blasting directly at her eyes.

"You do know that," Zuko stated anew as he took another step toward her. "Aang's the best Bender in the world, and all he needs to do is start glowing and nobody can cast a shadow on him."

Lightning flashed on the horizon, a few dim arcs seeming to shoot through the clouds.

"He's going to be fine," Zuko repeated.

Something was changing on the horizon, the clouds showing the slightest ripple of a slice upwards, before beginning to dissipate at an alarming pace.

"I'm not so sure," Katara said weakly, as the she began seeing the first glimmers of the ruins amongst the burning sky.

"I think he's in a lot more trouble than you think."

Blood dripped on the polished stone tiles. It wasn't Aang's. A split second move, a flick of an arm right before hitting the ground, air slicing along the ground toward the clouds.

She had screamed when it had happened, a scream of agony as the remnants of her arm had been removed, ripped off by a dull blade of air.

The Avatar and the Experiment stood across the courtyard, eyes showing utter malice toward one another. Two absolutes stood on the same ground, the purifying light that had shined since ancient times and the corrupting darkness of a new era. Two absolutes stood on the same ground, each uncommunicative toward the other yet saying the same thing. Two absolutes stood on the same ground, mirroring one another, understanding the same simple concept: by the time the sun had retreated beyond the seas, only one would remain.

There was nothing to say, no final words as they stood across from each other, readying for the end of their fighting, and readying for one of the two's final charge ever.

Slowly, their feet began moving, walking, and running toward the other.

"He'll be okay," Zuko repeated as he looked out the hole in the new window of ice. The clouds were dissipating, the city seeming still. There was no fight, not one that the Fire Lord could see.

"He's probably just talking with her, and you were seeing weird weather." Mai added as she walked over.

Katara looked back through the hole in ice. Whatever storm was happening, it had ended, with an almost sereneness taking over in the fleeting minutes of sunset. She turned, preparing to move the ice to fill in that last hole, prepared to finally admit that Aang was okay.

But, she saw the flash. A tiny white light blinked on the horizon, a tiny light coming from the ruins of the city. And, Katara didn't even have time to react before she felt it.

Within a breath, winds ripped at the airship, shaking every loose bolt and rivet, threatening to rip through every single glass pane as it rattled over the windows. It brought the thundering boom of an explosion with it, a low pound that made everything shake even more.

"Zuko!"

"I know," the Fire Lord said as he turned toward the intercom.

"Captain, fly us as fast as you can toward that city."


	19. Twilight

Sunset

Feet crunched against the dead ground.

The world had seemed to end, with only a crater remaining in the remnants of the city. Scorched Earth Colony Four, once acting as if a great harbor had merely gone silent and dead, building unchanged by the passage of years, now ruins, twisted steel girders and massive stone bricks acting as headstones.

It had seemed the world had exploded, an apocalypse that nothing could survive through: a fireball that had been felt from miles away. But, two had survived, two immortal beings: the spirit of the world descended to humanity and the dreams of man ascended to stand amongst the spirits.

Slowly, the ground shuffled, burned rock and dirt crunching under offbeat footsteps, as one began stirring.

The Avatar had been fortunate, a ball of air protecting it, the earth leaping up to guard it as the world seemed to explode, the air set aflame in a blinding light. The Avatar had hidden from the worst but had still felt it, knocked around, the body rendered unconscious at the strikes it had endured.

Slowly, the Avatar began stirring, fingers twitching as the tattoos lit anew, eyes opening and looking toward the slow crunching of the ground before him.

The Avatar froze.

Before him, the remnants of woman stood, flesh marred and destroyed, blood dripping over burned arms and legs, fingers outstretched and ready to strike, ready to kill.

The woman had not been as lucky, flesh growing uncontrollably, attempting to protect her, metal from the destroyed city rushing in to guard her, melting away as everything exploded. The new flesh had burned away in the last seconds of heat, seared off and cut away by molten metal. Slowly charred flesh began falling away from the woman after the explosion, burned and dead skin and muscle being replaced by a regrowing body, so that by the time that the woman had reached the Avatar, burned flesh was replaced by scar tissue, patches of hair were replaced by raven locks, and behind her, a trail of a dying body led by a living god.

Slowly her hand had risen, two fingers ready to strike and end the dreadful battle.

The woman's eyes locked with the Avatar's eyes, glowing red eyes meeting with glowing blue eyes, both showing utter hatred for the other.

Blinding white light began forming at the woman's fingertips, preparing to end it all.

It began building, coming from deep within the woman's core, a slow cough, forcing out of her lips, the glowing in her fingers ending in a single second as her body swayed, a second cough returning. She convulsed, eyes wide open to fear as she began stumbling, coughing again, blood splattering around her hand as she covered her mouth.

The Avatar was getting to his feet, as she coughed a final time, her body crumbling and falling to the ground, her body unmoving as the Avatar stepped closer to her.

His hand raised, preparing to end it all, water rising around his arm, preparing to end the corruption that the woman had wrought.

The woman's eyes looked toward the Avatar, blue and red glowing eyes meeting a final time as slowly the woman's red eyes began fading, glowing red fading into a dark brown: the corrupted light of an ancient burned out in exhaustion.

The water fell, splashing upon the woman as the glowing of the Avatar stopped, satisfied, believing the corruption of the spirits to be over.

Aang stumbled back, swaying in exhaustion but looking around at the sunset arriving so soon. It was over. The desperate fight was over. His body seemed to be utterly exhausted, more so than he had ever been before.

He was looking at the ground in front of him as he heard the woman take a slow breath, slightly coughing in exhaustion.

"Don't. Don't think- that you've won anything."

Aang heard her voice, surprise ruling over him as he turned toward her, almost in utter disbelief as he heard her voice, seeing every word slowly be formed by her mouth as she began speaking anew. Gone was the screaming sound that seemed to echo in his ears when she spoke, leaving only a faint whisper of a voice.

"Don't think that because you defeated me, you get to kiss the girl as I rot in a cell. Don't think that I will merely give up or that I cannot bend anymore. Imprison me. I can and will break out. Dare to turn your back to me. I'm not powerless; I can and will recover. Attempt to remove my Bending. The Avatar state can awaken with that touch. It will, you will kill me. And you are not a killer. You're not even in a position to kill. You're powerless. My era, my people, they will rise again, Avatar, they will"

"You don't get it do you?" Aang interrupted. "You keep commanding me as if you won. Look around. Your people are all dead. Your city is destroyed. Your era is over, and I doubt anyone will remember it. And your trying to command the one person who recognizes your worth. You could have done a lot of good. You could have made this world a better place. A lot of good people died because of you, because you used your Bending to hurt others, because you thought your will was more important than their right to exist. Maybe without your Bending you'll understand that."  
>"NO!"<p>

Aang turned toward her, his foot sliding and twisting, the earth rising around the woman, forcing her to kneel, propping her limp body so she was forced to look at Aang as he began walking toward her.

"No! You will not remove my Bending! When we touch again, the Avatar state, it will wake up, it will kill me. You'll kill me!"

Aang's foot stepped down again. He was not listening to her.

"It won't work. What you're about to use, it's dangerous. It nearly killed you once before. Ozai was a completely normal Bender. I'm not. It will kill both of us. That Waterbender, she'll never see you again if you try it. It will kill both of us. You, you'll be a killer. You want that, don't you. You want that don't you! You want to kill me! You want to feel my blood on your hands!"  
>His foot stepped down again and again as she panted, exhausted lungs inhaling dust filled air, exhalations practically coughing out as Aang's feet moved ever closer to her, ever closer to her end.<p>

"Please, don't do this. I've done evil. I'll admit that. But, please, I still can help you. Your plans, I can make sure they go by more smoothly. With my help, you could bring about peace so much easier to this broken world. Please. Don't do this. Please."

She was crying, tears running down her cheeks as Aang walked closer to her. He was crying too. Tears were rolling down his cheeks as he walked toward her.

"Please."

Aang stood before her, taking a long slow breath.

His fingertips touched against her chest, feeling the scorched leather top that she had been wearing, and beneath it, her heartbeat.

He was shuddering as his other hand began moving, toward a terrified face, crying in fear.

Slowly, his fingers touched against her forehead.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUU UUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!

Hours passed. Aang could hear Katara's voice: a slow echo into his ears. But, he didn't even notice how close she was or if she was even real until she had grabbed him. His eyes slowly looked away from his hands, gazing upon the Waterbender. She had been in a fight, been a victim of brute force the likes of which neither would ever feel again. He hadn't even realized the time change. The sun had set, the last light disappearing beneath the never ending oceans to the west. Darkness would soon descend over the entire world.

Aang watched as Katara's eyes focused upon the husk.

"Is she?"  
>"No," he said quietly. Before his eyes the entire situation played itself over again. He could hear her scream, feel the awful jerking of her body as she fell to the side.<p>

She hadn't died. Her lungs still drew breath. Her body still maintained heat. Her heart kept a completely normal rhythmic beat. But, she was not sleeping. He knew that already.

His eyes slid from the empty body toward his hands again, looking upon them in the fleeting twilight.

"She's alive, somewhere."

_"Darkness is not evil. I cannot begin to comprehend where your nyctophobia came from child. However, darkness is not your enemy. It is your friend, your very essence, for you are darkness incarnate. The Avatar, the Firelord, the Earth King, they are as light. They shine upon the world, blinding those around them, creating shadow everywhere, creating their downfall. They create strife. Light divides the world. Darkness unifies the world. It surrounds us all, bringing the world together. While darkness rules the night, wars are not fought. When darkness rules the world, peace rules. You, child, must become darkness to bring peace to the world. Use the shadows, use that which had been brought from years of gods and kings shining upon the world. And, bring about the great change that has been destined. The others, your enemies, they will lie to you. Do not believe them young Aka, young Experiment 19."_

_ "Yes, Doctor Sar."_


End file.
